A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown Shanghai September 10, 2013.
A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown Shanghai September 10, 2013. Reuters

As of March 2015, Apple sold over 61 million new iPhones, pocketed around $13 billion in profits and stashed away a whopping cash haul of nearly $194 billion. So the tech giant is setting its eyes on the next big thing – the iPhone 7 release date.

Amidst the bevy of rumours surrounding the next iPhone only a handful are readily believable. Seven of them are briefly detailed below:

Force Touch

Ming-chi Kuo of KGI Securities said earlier this April that there will be no iPhone 6S and in its stead Apple is deploying the iPhone 7. The latter device represents a design overhaul of the iPhone 6 and the rewrite, Kuo noted, is due to the inclusion of Force Touch to the next iPhone menu.

Force Touch is becoming an Apple standard as the sensor system was first packed with the Apple Watch and MacBook. One immediate impact of the feature to the overall iPhone design is the likely ditching of the Home button.

iPhone 7 and 7 Plus

Like their immediate predecessors, the next iPhones will be served in two variants – the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. The screen sizes will be of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus – 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch respectively. But rumours emerged recently that suggest the smaller model could be upsized to 5-inch, thanks to the adjustments prompted by Force Touch.

4-inch model

There might be a third edition that will join the 2015 iPhone line up, according to The Wall Street Journal. It will be the 4-inch model that likely will take name iPhone 6C or 7C. Kuo, however, is predicting that this device will not come out until 2016.

Pink iPhone

The Journal also picked up supply chain rumours that Apple is expanding the current iPhone colour catalogue. Joining the white, black, silver and gold iPhones is the pink option that likely is geared for the young consumers.

A9 application processor

Going into the internals, the main component that would fire up the upcoming Apple flagship is the 64-bit A9 application processor. That this chip will bump off the A8 CPU is almost certain but the question remains which among Samsung and TSMC would be the key provider of this iPhone 7 main engine.

iOS 9

Each year, Apple reengineers its iOS mobile platform so for 2015 iOS will surely give way to a new version that likely will be known as iOS 9. Nothing is confirmed yet about the software, save its presumptive name, but it will surely pack the killer features that the next iPhone will showcase right out of the box.

Killer camera

The iPhone 6 camera combo is already a killer but enhancements are expected for the sequel. Among the whispered bumps are a dual-lens sensor that will allow the capture of DSLR-class quality images and 3D effects that will add fresh dimension to the already top-notch iPhone camera.

The likelihood is, most if not all of these specs and features will be confirmed on or before the iPhone 7 release date this 2015. The target month of the actual rollout is between September and October of the same year.

To report problems or leave feedback on this article, email: r.pineda@ibtimes.com.au.

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