All about iPhone 6: release date, specs, pics

As competition from rivals grows leaps and bounds, Apple has a plan of its own to shake up the market. If reports from Apple experts are to be believed, the US-based firm's widely expected bigger-screen iPhone 6 will be unveiled at a September 9 event.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, Apple has asked suppliers to manufacture between 70 million and 80 million of its two forthcoming large-screen iPhones by the end of the year, its largest initial production run of iPhones.

Its forecast for two variants of the new iPhone is much larger than the initial order last year of between 50 million and 60 million for iPhone 5S and 5C models, people familiar with internal affairs at Apple told the Wall Street Journal.

Here is what we know about the iPhone 6 so far, thanks to fan rumours and expert forecast:

Size

Apple is planning to launch two phones with 4.7-inch (11.9-cm) and 5.5-inch (14-cm) displays, according to the WSJ report. Both iPhone 6 screens will be larger than the 4.0-inch (10.2-cm) panels on the existing iPhone 5S and 5C models.

Body

The new phone models are expected to feature metal cases similar to the iPhone 5S and will likely come in multiple colours. The new phones are rumoured to be thinner with in-cell touch panel technology built into the screen and 2mm thick batteries, Apple sources told Reuters recently. The current iPhones sport 3mm-thick batteries.

Features

A much-discussed and obvious feature that is heading Apple fans' way is iOS 8, the latest mobile operating system which was unveiled at an official event in June.

Another feature, not confirmed, is automatic unlocking. According to a PC Advisor report, Apple's patent for the feature, called 'location -sensitive security', says: 'The security level and/or other device behaviour, configurations, or settings on a mobile device can be modified based on the location of the mobile device.'

Apple, along with the iPhone 6, might launch a mobile wallet, reports have also suggested. The US phonemaker is believed to be in discussions with several banking institutions and credit card associations.

The feature will store users' sensitive financial data on their smartphones' secure element.

Camera

The iPhone 6 will almost certainly have a better camera than its predecessors. The iPhone 5s has an 8-megapixel, but two separate rumours claim the new iPhones could have a 10-megapixel or 13-megapixel cameras.

Memory

The maximum storage limit for Apple phones is 64GB. However, reports say if Apple does not introduce expandable storage, it may introduce 128GB internal memory space in the new iPhones.

Looks

Leaked images of the supposed new range of the Apple phones have been doing the rounds for quite a while now. We take a look at a few of them:

With inputs from Reuters