Apple iPhone 7 Release Date, Rumored Specs, and Crossover Features

By Shawn Schuster
iPhone 7
This render of the rumored iPhone 7 shows what we could expect with Apple's new smartphone. Photo: Jimmy Benson/Flickr

The latest rumors concerning Apple's highly anticipated new iPhone seem to center on the possibility of not one, but three new iPhones releasing in 2015, and none of them are the iPhone 7.

This rumor comes straight from DigiTimes who says that Apple will be releasing the iPhone 6S, the iPhone 6S Plus, and a smaller 4-inch-screen version called the iPhone 6C.

"All of the handsets will come equipped with LTPS panels and supply for the iPhone 6S Plus and iPhone 6C will come from Japan Display, Sharp and LG Display while that for the iPhone 6S will come from Japan Display and LG," DigiTimes' industry source said. 

The site also reports that all devices will come with Corning Gorilla Glass, NFC and fingerprint scanning technologies, and will be assembled by Foxconn and Pegatron.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launched in September, but the rumors about Apple's direction with the iPhone are all over the place. Looking back at the way Apple tends to upgrade its iPhone line, it would make perfect sense that 2015 would see an expansion of the iPhone 6 line instead of an entirely new numerical sequence, but there is also evidence that Apple is turning away from this method, especially as it introduces entirely new products like the Apple Watch this spring.

And if Apple gets too predictable, it could hurt the company as it depends on hype and consumer excitement to build for higher sales.

This is why an iPhone 7 is also a likely product this fall. Apple already tested the waters with larger screens  on the iPhone 6 Plus, so it's not likely that it will upgrade the iPhone 5C with a 6C version this year. The iPhone 6 Plus' sales were good so far, but the question is if they're good enough to sway production after only six months.

So what would a potential iPhone 7 feature? Two of the biggest rumors surrounding a brand new iPhone are 3D touch technology and Force Touch, already seen on the Apple Watch.

Force Touch allows for various pressure to be applied to the display to perform various tasks. Apple's new MacBook also uses this technology, so it's a sure bet that the iPhone will follow.

As for the 3D side, Apple already owns a patent for something that will "simultaneously identify multiple fingerprint recognition technology panels," but the application is unclear at this point.

The iPhone 7 is also expected to feature the latest A chip, which would be A9, and 2 GB of RAM. While most Android phones features twice this capacity, iOS requires far less memory to run over Android.

But all in all, most rumors concerning the new iPhone seem to center around existing technologies on other Apple products being ported over to the smartphone. We've seen this with just about every other type of new technology Apple throws at various products, and we know that the company likes to share. Force Touch seems to be the most likely of these rumors at this point.

And where could the iPhone stand to improve the most? Many say its camera, so the rumors of a two-lens system that allows DSLR-quality images would be likely. Apple knows that straight megapixel count isn't everything and they've skipped the gimmicky one-up on megapixel numbers to instead focus on apertures and superior low-light handling.

But whatever Apple decides to do with the iPhone this year, you can bet that we won't see anything for a few more months. 

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