Having arrived just months ago, Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are now working as the flagship phones for the Cupertino-based company. However, sales notwithstanding, Apple fans are now looking ahead and wondering when the tech firm will release the iPhone 6's successor, and what new features it will pack.
Most likely to be called the iPhone 6s, the buzz in the online community places the release date of Apple's next generation smartphone in September this year. This is a very likely window since Apple has a tendency to release new phones toward the latter part of the year. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were released in September last year, the iPhone 5s and 5c in September 2013, the iPhone 5 in September 2012, and the iPhone 4s in October 2011.
Also, based on the rumors floating, Apple has yet to settle the issue of which manufacturer would take the bulk of the new chipset that would power the new iPhone. Over the past few years, chip production for Apple products were split between South Korea's Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation.
Samsung was initially expected to get the larger share in producing the new A9 and A9X processors, the upgraded chip in lieu of the iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2's A8 and A8X. However, analysts now expect TSMC to take the majority of chip production.
In a research by Barron's, Daiwa Securities analyst Rick Hsu and Olivia Hsu were quoted as saying, "We believe TSMC will earn most of the A9 orders thanks to its superior yield ramp and manufacturing excellence in mass production. We expect TSMC to earn all of Apple's A9X orders (for the next-generation iPad) and most of the A9 (for the next generation of iPhone), aggregating to an allocation of over 70 percent."
