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iPhone 6 and iPhone 5.5-inch phablet to hit production imminently

Apple’s iPhone 6 is set to start its production cycle next week, while the iPhone 5.5 will begin manufacture in late August

Apple will start producing the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 next week, while the 5.5-inch version will be delayed until mid-August according to rumours.

Taiwan’s Economic News said the enormous pocket-filling iPhone phablet will be delayed because availability of the display panel has been set back. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (who’s a bit of an Apple rumour bomb-dropper) said specifically that the delay may be down to the new in-cell touch panels, which are harder to produce for larger screens.

Apple's iPhone 6 starts production cycle in July 2014

The same report revealed that Apple’s manufacturing partner, Foxconn, is preparing to appoint 100,000 new workers for its production line, specifically to work on the next-generation iPhone. Apple’s secondary manufacturer Pegatron said it would take on an additional 10,000 staff to help produce the iPhone 6.

The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 is due to launch in September and new rumours suggest it will be the thinnest iPhone ever, with a slimmer battery and reduced thickness screen technology.

New rumours released overnight also suggest the iPhone 6 will feature a 13-megapixel Sony Exmor camera module, as seen on the Sony Xperia Z – a phone that’s already a year and a half old. Sony’s latest premium phones, the Xperia Z1 and Xperia Z2, both sported 20.7-megapixel snappers.

That whopping 5.5-inch iPhone is said to be Apple’s answer to a phablet, set to rival Samsung’s Galaxy Note range of devices. However, thanks to those production delays, it’s not likely to be released until the tail end of 2014.

Kuo said in her report that the delays to the phablet won’t impact the availability of the smaller iPhone 6, but Apple will instead opt for a staggered approach – launching the 4.7-inch device in September as planned, followed by the phablet in November.

Production delays are nothing new for Apple, of course. Before the iPad Mini with Retina display was launched in 2013, reports had it delayed until 2014. However, the device landed with little or no delay to availability, so we’re still hopeful that we’ll see the phablety iPhone by the year’s end.

Don’t miss our everything we know about Apple’s iPhone 6 round-up.

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