4.7-Inch iPhone 6 Confirmed for October 2014 Release Date as New Reports Claim Mass Production Start in July?

The iPhone 6 release date is likely happening in the last quarter of 2014 as fresh information from Asia suggests of an iPhone 5S sequel that boasts of a larger screen, and volume production of which begins in July.

Reports from Taiwan and Japan, according to Apple-centric tech site MacRumors, appear to indicate that mass manufacturing activities for the next iPhone will start in the third quarter of the year and target rollout of the device is anytime in the last three months of 2014.

The same report claimed that Apple contractors will fire up the iPhone 6 assembly lines in July and the earliest issuance of the banner iOS device is October.

Japanese website EMSOne, per MacRumors, also reiterated the earlier reports that Apple's upcoming flagship phone will sport a 4.7-inch screen, which is seemingly affirmed in a supposed Weibo screenshot that showed the iPhone 6 with a relatively bigger screen from the previous iPhone builds.

Picked up by BGR, the image (viewable here) showcased an iOS 8-powered iPhone 6 that has five columns and seven rows of app icons. The familiar launcher is quite similar to the official render seen in iOS 7.1.

The Weibo poster did not mention the source of the screenshot, adding that out of the box the iPhone 6 will beam in a screen resolution of 1600 x 966, which somehow is out of sync with the usual display pixels that Apple employs for its iOS devices.

Outside of these newly-leaked details, the 2014 iPhone seems to come out in two models and according to MacRumors, the regular 4.7-inch iPhone 6 will be joined later by a hulking sibling that will wow Apple fans with a 5.5-inch viewing window.

The bigger iPhone, however, will not be launched simultaneously with the iPhone 6 as the EMSOne report hinted of production delays "due to difficulties with in-cell production technology," that will be used in the smartphone's giant display panel.

Production of the iPhone phablet is reportedly set in September and the debut date could come by December 2014 at the earliest.

Apart from having a stretched screen and running on iOS 8, both reports stopped short of touching on other likely specs and features of the iPhone 6 though a confidential document that allegedly came from Apple seem to have confirmed of a bigger and cheaper iPhone for 2014.

Also on its release date, the iPhone 6 is highly-anticipated to show off a 64-bit A8 processing chip, an upgraded camera plus a bevy of fresh killer features headlined by slimmer and lighter body-build, an all-screen front panel with sapphire glass cover and an extra-tough Liquidmetal housing that is coated with sapphire.