While there have been a raft of big smartphone releases this year, the reality is that consumers in the Western world in particular are still eagerly awaiting news of the biggest mobile product of the year. With the greatest of respect to the likes of Samsung, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) remains the most powerful company in consumer electronics, and recent surveys have shown that Apple attracts customer loyalty like no other brand, and thus it can expect the usual queues around the block when it finally announces and then releases the iPhone 6.
iPhone 6 release date remains secret
But when will this be? This valuable morsel of information is still very much shrouded in secrecy. There were those that believed it would be released, or at least unveiled, during Apple’s recent World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), but the WWDC came and went with a distinctly software-oriented focus. We are now just over ten weeks away from the date which many had suspected would be the release date of the iPhone 6, so will it emerge in September, or can we expect the release date to be pushed back further?
The first thing to say is that the iPhone 6 was never particularly likely to be released in the summer. ValueWalk has consistently advised against this conclusion, and the WWDC has not in recent years been used to announce hardware releases. Also, if we look at the release dates of previous iPhones, we see that the historical precedent would suggest that an autumnal release is most likely.
Although the early iPhones came out in June / July, more recent iterations of the world’s most popular smartphone have cemented the iPhone release date as September / October. With the iPhone 4s, iPhone 5 and both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c having been released in either September or October, it seems highly likely that the iPhone 6 will follow the template set down by its younger brothers and sisters.
While many are looking for an announcement from Apple to confirm the existence and release date of the iPhone 6 – not to mention the much mooted iWatch – the reality is that Apple has always been something of a clandestine organization. The iPhone 5s was actually only officially announced a mere ten days before it was put on public release, and it seems increasingly likely that Apple will be taking a similarly seat of the pants marketing approach to the iPhone 6.
Apple iPhone 6 rumor mill rumbles on
In the meantime, rumors continue to stack up regarding what we can expect from the iPhone 6. All of the leaks from the extensive Apple supply chain suggest that this is going to be a significant departure from previous iPhones, at least with regard to the material that the smartphone is constructed from. The iPhone 6 could be the first iPhone to be manufactured using Sapphire Glass, hopefully making the handset more durable and scratch-proof.
Others rumors suggest that the iPhone 6 will have up to 128GB of internal storage and expandable storage, a superior camera to previous iPhones, will come armed with the new iOS 8 operating system, will feaure heart-rate measuring EarPods, will include an NFC chip, and will incorporate wireless charging. Which of those turn out to be accurate remains to be seen, but expect to wait at least ten weeks to find out officially!