Thanks to the raft of product announcements at the end of 2013, including the
iPad Air, iPad Mini with Retina Display, iPhone 5s and iOS 7, we got a glimpse of what Apple had been up to and an idea of what the hotly anticipated iPhone 6 would be like.
With the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One (M8) released, we now know what the big competition is doing this year, too, and what Apple has to compete against.
With the other big launches out of the way, the rumours are now all about Apple's latest smartphone. They're coming in thick and fast, so we're updating this article regularly to keep you up-to-date. We're also doing out best to filter out the rubbish, getting rid of the leaks, rumours and photos that are obviously fake. As we get ever-close to the launch date, the rumours will increase and we'll get a better idea of what to expect.
Rumour has it that the iPhone 6 is taking design cues from the iPod Nano and iPhone 5C.
Rumours published on the Japanese blog Macotakara stated that Apple wants to replicate the multiple colours of the iPhone 5C, giving people a choice for their new phone.
The iPhone 5C was made of plastic, which wouldn't seem like the right move for a high-end smartphone; Apple seems to agree and is also looking to the construction of the iPod Nano. This product comes in multiple colours, too, but uses anodised aluminium body to provide the colour.
The one thing that everyone seems to be able to agree on is that the iPhone 6 will have a larger screen than any other iOS smartphone before it. There's a definite market for large-screen phones, as we've seen start with the big Android phones of 2013 including HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, and Samsung Galaxy S4, continuing with these releases. With the current iPhone having only a 4in screen, it makes sense for Apple to step up.
The question that has to be answered is, how big will the screen be? Early rumours suggested that there would be a 4.7in screen, but soon rumours appeared saying that it would be available in two screen sizes.
First, Foxconn executives (unnamed, of course), reported by BGR, added fuel to the fire of this rumour.
According to this information, the iPhone 6 will ship in 4.7in and a phablet-sized 5.7in. Then, it was reported that the4.7in iPhone 6 was to be joined by 5.6in iPhone phablet.
According to Taiwan's Economic Daily News, Apple is set to launch a new phablet alongside the iPhone 6, with a 5.6in screen size.
Most recently, it was reported by Reuters that the iPhone 6 screen was going into production in May, with both 4.7in and 5.5in displays.
Even more information has come out recently, with the iPhone 6 4.7in and 5.5in screen resolutions allegedly leaked. According to KGI Securities analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a good track record with this kind of thing, the two screen sizes will have different resolutions.
Reported by MacRumors, the smaller 4.7in handset will have a resolution of 1,334x760 with a pixel density of 326ppi (a minor increase over the S5). The larger 5.5in phablet is said to get a Full HD 1,920x1,080 resolution, with a pixel density of 401ppi. We're not so convinced on these resolutions, as that would mean introducing two new screen sizes for app developers to cope with, which is something that Apple has never done before.
As well as trying to predict the screen resolutions, Kuo also said that Apple will make the iPhone 6 slimmer. He said the bezel would shrink by 10-20 per cent smaller, and move the power button to the side.
At first, we were fairly quick to dismiss rumours that Apple would launch a phone in two screen sizes. After all, it's not something that the company had done before and it usually likes to release a single smartphone. However, the evidence keeps on piling up, so it would appear as though we may well get two handsets.
According to the manufacturing rumours, the 4.7in screen is going into production first. It will use in-cell touch technology, integrating the touch components into the screen to save space. Apparently, there are manufacturing problems making the 5.5in screen, so it may use the traditional film sensor technology instead.
Most rumours suggest that the screen will have a Full HD 1,920x1,080 resolution. However, we think that the resolution could be wrong, mostly because of the way that Apple works.
Generally speaking Apple likes resolutions that scale easily from previous products, so it and developers know how apps will look on-screen. Full HD doesn't do this from the existing iPhone or iPads. We think that Apple could quadruple the existing iPhone 5S's screen resolution, giving an iPhone 6 with a resolution of 2,272x1,280 instead. We've covered why the iPhone 6 won't have a Full HD screenin more detail.
Increasing the screen size isn't all that Apple seems to have planned, as the company is also looking at ways of improving image quality. Apple has long been known for its high-quality screens and it seems that it wants to stay ahead of the pack with its latest smartphone. This time around, Apple is said to looking atquantum dot technology for the iPhone 6.
Quantum dots are man-made nanoparticles of semiconductor material, used to create light. They're so small that quantum effects start to take place. Without getting too bogged down in the science, the result is that the size of the dot affects its behaviour.
From a display manufacturer's point of view, this behaviour can be harnessed, as the size of the quantum dot directly affects the wavelength of its light emission. The smaller the dot is, the closer to the blue end of the spectrum; the larger the dot, the closer to the red end of the spectrum it gets.
What's exciting about this is that displays can be fine-tuned using quantum dots of specific sizes. It means that a display can show more accurate colours. Quantum dot is not new technology and the Kindle Fire HDX uses this technology in its screen already. However, as we noted in our Kindle review, one of the downsides was some light bleed around the edge of the screen.
Apple is aware of this problem and is working to correct it. According to recent patents, discovered by Patently Apple, the company is also working on a methods to improve colour gamut. If Apple can overcome some of the limitations of quantum dot technology, the iPhone 6's screen could be hugely impressive.
ETNews has been reporting that the iPhone 6 will be the slimmest iPhone yet. In fact, at a reported 6mm thick, the iPhone 6 would shave 1.6mm off of the iPhone 5. It would also make the iPhone 6 half the thickness of the iPhone 3GS.
Making the iPhone slimmer also raises the question, will it be called the iPhone 6 at all? When Apple made the iPad slimmer and smaller, it went with iPad Air. Plenty of people believe that the iPhone 6 could be the iPhone Air instead.
It would make sense in a way, as Apple could continue to sell the iPhone 5S as the smaller screen version and have the iPhone Air as the slim, large-screen model
The short version is that nobody really knows when the iPhone 6 is coming out. Everyone has a guess, but it's usually wrong. In other words, Apple releases a product when it's good and ready.
Typically, Apple releases a new iPhone once a year, around September. This time around, the rumours are that Apple is breaking that cycle. As the iPhone 6 is largely a complimentary product to the iPhone 5S, giving people a choice of screen sizes, the argument is that Apple will release the new smartphone soon.
So far, we've seen May, June and July all rumoured for a launch date. The information comes from a wide variety of conflicting sources, so none of these feels right.
However, there's a more persuasive argument that the iPhone 6 will launch in September, as is usual. It all comes from the financial report submitted by GT Advanced. This is the company that will manufacture sapphire glass for the new smartphone (see below for more information).
In GT Advanced's earnings report, it's clearly stated that the company expects to earn the vast majority of its money in the second half of the year. That means, from July, GT Advanced will be producing sapphire glass that will have to be shipped to China to be used with the iPhone 6 production line. That would seem to suggest that the iPhone 6 will be released in September, one year after the iPhone 5S.
It's hard to argue with those kinds of figures, but we'll bring you more information as we have it.
Apple typically releases its new models at the same price as the old ones. If that holds out, then, and assuming that the 16GB model is dropped, we'd expect the 32GB model to cost £529, the 64GB model £599 and the 128GB model £699. However, if the company continues to sell the iPhone 5S, we could be in for some new pricing, with the iPhone 6 a premium model that sits above it, in which case all bets are off and we have no idea how much it will be.
If Apple does decide to make an iPhone with a larger screen, there's also a good chance prices will increase too. Susquehanna analyst Chris Caso, speaking toAllThingsD, predicted that there could be a $50 to $100 premium for a larger iPhone 6, compared to the 4in iPhone 5s.
Rumours of an iPhone 6 substantial price hike have been echoed by The New York Post. Again, the story says that the new smartphone could cost $100 more than the existing iPhone 5S.
Although this goes against Apple's tradition of keeping prices the same across generations, it's not a rule the company is afraid to break every now and then. Last month's iPad Mini with Retina display launch introduced a $70 premium over the entry level model, so a price hike isn't out of the question.
However, there is potential good news. As Apple is said to be planning two screen sizes, it may be that the 4.7in model costs the same as the current iPhone, with only the larger phablet costing more. We're going to have to wait until much closer to launch to have any true idea of pricing, though.
Although beautifully made, the iPhone is just as breakable as any other smartphone, with plenty of people walking around with cracked screens after a drop. Apple appears to be working on a solution to this problem, toughening up its products.
A new deal could signal a super-tough sapphire screen for the iPhone 6. According to reports, Apple has struck a deal with GT Advanced technologies to produce sapphire glass in a plant in Arizona.
The deal was announced by GT Advanced Technologies in a regulatory filing. "The sapphire glass that GT will make in the facility will be used to cover the camera lenses in Apple's phones and the fingerprint-reading devices in its latest products. GT's technology also can be used to make scratchproof glass covers for smartphones, although it is not used for that purpose by Apple today".
Apple is due to pay $578m, which GT Advanced Technologies will use to buy and operate sapphire production equipment in a new Arizona facility. GT Advanced Technologies will pay back the Apple over a five-year period.
While the deal should, in the short-term, provide Apple with the materials it needs for existing components, there's a long-term plan, too. As part of the deal, GT Advanced Technologies will "deliver low cost, high volume manufacturing of sapphire material" using a large-capacity furnace.
Synthetic sapphire glass gets its name because it's transparent, although it's not technically glass. However, sapphire's advantage over glass is its incredible durability and hardiness. Sapphire has a value of 9 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, putting it just behind diamond. This means that it's extremely difficult to break, resulting in fewer broken iPhones, saving money in repair costs.
It would seem almost certain now that Apple will go with Sapphire Glass. Thanks to GT Advanced's earnings report, covered by Forbes. Looking through the filing, GT Advanced appears to be doing little business in the first and second quarters of the year, but expects to jump massively to $500-to-$700m in the last six months of the year alone.
What this tells us is that GT Advanced is now fully committed to Apple and that it expects to ramp up production of sapphire glass in the second half of the year. Revenues of this size can only be generated by one product: the iPhone. As noted above, this information would also seem to give away the release date, ruling out the iPhone 6 coming in May.
As well as looking at the screen, Apple is also said to be looking at toughening up the case by investigating liquid metal for the iPhone 6. Liquid metal would encase the iPhone 6 is a super-tough metal, built up layer-by-layer, making it a lot hardier and more difficult to break. According to new information, Apple has put in five patents for liquid metal.
One describes how bulk metallic glasses (BMG, or liquid metal to give it the more familiar name) would be layered on top of each other to create components. The main focus on this invention is via 3D printing, allowing Apple to build components and cases from computer-generated designs.
What's more Patently Apple, which found the information, believes that Apple has already used liquid metals in the iPhone 5S, suggesting that the technology is already available. It's clear, then, that Apple is interested in liquid metal for the iPhone and iPad range, so it's now a matter of when.
iPad Air, iPad Mini with Retina Display, iPhone 5s and iOS 7, we got a glimpse of what Apple had been up to and an idea of what the hotly anticipated iPhone 6 would be like.
With the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One (M8) released, we now know what the big competition is doing this year, too, and what Apple has to compete against.
With the other big launches out of the way, the rumours are now all about Apple's latest smartphone. They're coming in thick and fast, so we're updating this article regularly to keep you up-to-date. We're also doing out best to filter out the rubbish, getting rid of the leaks, rumours and photos that are obviously fake. As we get ever-close to the launch date, the rumours will increase and we'll get a better idea of what to expect.
iPHONE 6 DESIGN
Typically, Apple uses the same design for a product for two iterations, before bringing out something new. As we've had the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S, it makes sense for Apple to go for something different for the iPhone 6.Rumour has it that the iPhone 6 is taking design cues from the iPod Nano and iPhone 5C.
Rumours published on the Japanese blog Macotakara stated that Apple wants to replicate the multiple colours of the iPhone 5C, giving people a choice for their new phone.
The iPhone 5C was made of plastic, which wouldn't seem like the right move for a high-end smartphone; Apple seems to agree and is also looking to the construction of the iPod Nano. This product comes in multiple colours, too, but uses anodised aluminium body to provide the colour.
iPHONE 6 TWO SCREEN SIZES
The one thing that everyone seems to be able to agree on is that the iPhone 6 will have a larger screen than any other iOS smartphone before it. There's a definite market for large-screen phones, as we've seen start with the big Android phones of 2013 including HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, and Samsung Galaxy S4, continuing with these releases. With the current iPhone having only a 4in screen, it makes sense for Apple to step up.
The question that has to be answered is, how big will the screen be? Early rumours suggested that there would be a 4.7in screen, but soon rumours appeared saying that it would be available in two screen sizes.
First, Foxconn executives (unnamed, of course), reported by BGR, added fuel to the fire of this rumour.
According to this information, the iPhone 6 will ship in 4.7in and a phablet-sized 5.7in. Then, it was reported that the4.7in iPhone 6 was to be joined by 5.6in iPhone phablet.
According to Taiwan's Economic Daily News, Apple is set to launch a new phablet alongside the iPhone 6, with a 5.6in screen size.
Most recently, it was reported by Reuters that the iPhone 6 screen was going into production in May, with both 4.7in and 5.5in displays.
Even more information has come out recently, with the iPhone 6 4.7in and 5.5in screen resolutions allegedly leaked. According to KGI Securities analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a good track record with this kind of thing, the two screen sizes will have different resolutions.
Reported by MacRumors, the smaller 4.7in handset will have a resolution of 1,334x760 with a pixel density of 326ppi (a minor increase over the S5). The larger 5.5in phablet is said to get a Full HD 1,920x1,080 resolution, with a pixel density of 401ppi. We're not so convinced on these resolutions, as that would mean introducing two new screen sizes for app developers to cope with, which is something that Apple has never done before.
As well as trying to predict the screen resolutions, Kuo also said that Apple will make the iPhone 6 slimmer. He said the bezel would shrink by 10-20 per cent smaller, and move the power button to the side.
At first, we were fairly quick to dismiss rumours that Apple would launch a phone in two screen sizes. After all, it's not something that the company had done before and it usually likes to release a single smartphone. However, the evidence keeps on piling up, so it would appear as though we may well get two handsets.
According to the manufacturing rumours, the 4.7in screen is going into production first. It will use in-cell touch technology, integrating the touch components into the screen to save space. Apparently, there are manufacturing problems making the 5.5in screen, so it may use the traditional film sensor technology instead.
iPHONE 6 SCREEN RESOLUTION AND TECH
Most rumours suggest that the screen will have a Full HD 1,920x1,080 resolution. However, we think that the resolution could be wrong, mostly because of the way that Apple works.
Generally speaking Apple likes resolutions that scale easily from previous products, so it and developers know how apps will look on-screen. Full HD doesn't do this from the existing iPhone or iPads. We think that Apple could quadruple the existing iPhone 5S's screen resolution, giving an iPhone 6 with a resolution of 2,272x1,280 instead. We've covered why the iPhone 6 won't have a Full HD screenin more detail.
Increasing the screen size isn't all that Apple seems to have planned, as the company is also looking at ways of improving image quality. Apple has long been known for its high-quality screens and it seems that it wants to stay ahead of the pack with its latest smartphone. This time around, Apple is said to looking atquantum dot technology for the iPhone 6.
Quantum dots are man-made nanoparticles of semiconductor material, used to create light. They're so small that quantum effects start to take place. Without getting too bogged down in the science, the result is that the size of the dot affects its behaviour.
From a display manufacturer's point of view, this behaviour can be harnessed, as the size of the quantum dot directly affects the wavelength of its light emission. The smaller the dot is, the closer to the blue end of the spectrum; the larger the dot, the closer to the red end of the spectrum it gets.
What's exciting about this is that displays can be fine-tuned using quantum dots of specific sizes. It means that a display can show more accurate colours. Quantum dot is not new technology and the Kindle Fire HDX uses this technology in its screen already. However, as we noted in our Kindle review, one of the downsides was some light bleed around the edge of the screen.
Apple is aware of this problem and is working to correct it. According to recent patents, discovered by Patently Apple, the company is also working on a methods to improve colour gamut. If Apple can overcome some of the limitations of quantum dot technology, the iPhone 6's screen could be hugely impressive.
iPHONE 6 SIZE
ETNews has been reporting that the iPhone 6 will be the slimmest iPhone yet. In fact, at a reported 6mm thick, the iPhone 6 would shave 1.6mm off of the iPhone 5. It would also make the iPhone 6 half the thickness of the iPhone 3GS.
Making the iPhone slimmer also raises the question, will it be called the iPhone 6 at all? When Apple made the iPad slimmer and smaller, it went with iPad Air. Plenty of people believe that the iPhone 6 could be the iPhone Air instead.
It would make sense in a way, as Apple could continue to sell the iPhone 5S as the smaller screen version and have the iPhone Air as the slim, large-screen model
iPHONE 6 RELEASE DATE
The short version is that nobody really knows when the iPhone 6 is coming out. Everyone has a guess, but it's usually wrong. In other words, Apple releases a product when it's good and ready.
Typically, Apple releases a new iPhone once a year, around September. This time around, the rumours are that Apple is breaking that cycle. As the iPhone 6 is largely a complimentary product to the iPhone 5S, giving people a choice of screen sizes, the argument is that Apple will release the new smartphone soon.
So far, we've seen May, June and July all rumoured for a launch date. The information comes from a wide variety of conflicting sources, so none of these feels right.
However, there's a more persuasive argument that the iPhone 6 will launch in September, as is usual. It all comes from the financial report submitted by GT Advanced. This is the company that will manufacture sapphire glass for the new smartphone (see below for more information).
In GT Advanced's earnings report, it's clearly stated that the company expects to earn the vast majority of its money in the second half of the year. That means, from July, GT Advanced will be producing sapphire glass that will have to be shipped to China to be used with the iPhone 6 production line. That would seem to suggest that the iPhone 6 will be released in September, one year after the iPhone 5S.
It's hard to argue with those kinds of figures, but we'll bring you more information as we have it.
iPHONE 6 PRICE
Apple typically releases its new models at the same price as the old ones. If that holds out, then, and assuming that the 16GB model is dropped, we'd expect the 32GB model to cost £529, the 64GB model £599 and the 128GB model £699. However, if the company continues to sell the iPhone 5S, we could be in for some new pricing, with the iPhone 6 a premium model that sits above it, in which case all bets are off and we have no idea how much it will be.
If Apple does decide to make an iPhone with a larger screen, there's also a good chance prices will increase too. Susquehanna analyst Chris Caso, speaking toAllThingsD, predicted that there could be a $50 to $100 premium for a larger iPhone 6, compared to the 4in iPhone 5s.
Rumours of an iPhone 6 substantial price hike have been echoed by The New York Post. Again, the story says that the new smartphone could cost $100 more than the existing iPhone 5S.
Although this goes against Apple's tradition of keeping prices the same across generations, it's not a rule the company is afraid to break every now and then. Last month's iPad Mini with Retina display launch introduced a $70 premium over the entry level model, so a price hike isn't out of the question.
However, there is potential good news. As Apple is said to be planning two screen sizes, it may be that the 4.7in model costs the same as the current iPhone, with only the larger phablet costing more. We're going to have to wait until much closer to launch to have any true idea of pricing, though.
iPHONE 6 TOUGHER CONSTRUCTION
Although beautifully made, the iPhone is just as breakable as any other smartphone, with plenty of people walking around with cracked screens after a drop. Apple appears to be working on a solution to this problem, toughening up its products.
A new deal could signal a super-tough sapphire screen for the iPhone 6. According to reports, Apple has struck a deal with GT Advanced technologies to produce sapphire glass in a plant in Arizona.
The deal was announced by GT Advanced Technologies in a regulatory filing. "The sapphire glass that GT will make in the facility will be used to cover the camera lenses in Apple's phones and the fingerprint-reading devices in its latest products. GT's technology also can be used to make scratchproof glass covers for smartphones, although it is not used for that purpose by Apple today".
Apple is due to pay $578m, which GT Advanced Technologies will use to buy and operate sapphire production equipment in a new Arizona facility. GT Advanced Technologies will pay back the Apple over a five-year period.
While the deal should, in the short-term, provide Apple with the materials it needs for existing components, there's a long-term plan, too. As part of the deal, GT Advanced Technologies will "deliver low cost, high volume manufacturing of sapphire material" using a large-capacity furnace.
Synthetic sapphire glass gets its name because it's transparent, although it's not technically glass. However, sapphire's advantage over glass is its incredible durability and hardiness. Sapphire has a value of 9 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, putting it just behind diamond. This means that it's extremely difficult to break, resulting in fewer broken iPhones, saving money in repair costs.
It would seem almost certain now that Apple will go with Sapphire Glass. Thanks to GT Advanced's earnings report, covered by Forbes. Looking through the filing, GT Advanced appears to be doing little business in the first and second quarters of the year, but expects to jump massively to $500-to-$700m in the last six months of the year alone.
What this tells us is that GT Advanced is now fully committed to Apple and that it expects to ramp up production of sapphire glass in the second half of the year. Revenues of this size can only be generated by one product: the iPhone. As noted above, this information would also seem to give away the release date, ruling out the iPhone 6 coming in May.
As well as looking at the screen, Apple is also said to be looking at toughening up the case by investigating liquid metal for the iPhone 6. Liquid metal would encase the iPhone 6 is a super-tough metal, built up layer-by-layer, making it a lot hardier and more difficult to break. According to new information, Apple has put in five patents for liquid metal.
One describes how bulk metallic glasses (BMG, or liquid metal to give it the more familiar name) would be layered on top of each other to create components. The main focus on this invention is via 3D printing, allowing Apple to build components and cases from computer-generated designs.
What's more Patently Apple, which found the information, believes that Apple has already used liquid metals in the iPhone 5S, suggesting that the technology is already available. It's clear, then, that Apple is interested in liquid metal for the iPhone and iPad range, so it's now a matter of when.
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