Apple 2014 Game-Changers: iPhone 6 Phablet, iWatch & 4-Inch iPhone that Folds Out as iPad Mini
Apart from the iPhone 6 release date, Apple will unleash a flurry of new products this 2014 that are touted as game-changers in the making.
According to Re/code, the tech giant is preparing for it biggest push ever since the first-generation versions of the iPod, iPhone and iPad were introduced. Apple SVP Eddy Cue trumpeted that "the products we've got coming (this 2014) are great."
"We've got the best product pipeline that I've seen in my 25 years at Apple," the senior executive told Re/code.
As expected, however, Cue was short on details, leaving Apple watchers to speculate that likely one of the products he was implying about is the Apple-optimised Beats Music service. Per numerous reports Beats Music founders Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine will directly report to Cue once the $3 billion Apple acquisition is finalised.
That would be a solid candidate but according to Jefferies analyst Peter Misek, there are at least three Apple products that are now in the prototype stage and should soon morph into killer devices for the tech titan in the second half of 2014.
The information on these gadgets that are being tested was sourced from Apple's supply chain players in Asia, Misek told MacRumors.
One of them is a jumbo iOS smartphone that the analyst said will sport a 5.5-inch screen that beams out in 2K display resolution with 660 pixels per inch. Likely the first iPhone phablet that has been long the subject of persistent rumours, the device will deploy with OLED display technology instead of the Retina panel that is identified with previous iPhone models.
If this will be the supersized iPhone 6, Misek projects that release date of the device could come as early as November 2014 though there are reports that claim the iOS phablet will not materialise until January 2015.
Then there is the first Apple smartwatch, the iWatch that the Jefferies report has predicted will come out anytime in Q3 2014, noting that volume production of the iOS timepiece will commence in July or a few weeks from now.
Lastly, Misek revealed that a 4-inch version of the OLED iPhone mentioned above has an existing prototype too, the difference of which from the bigger build is when users fold out the device the transforms into an iPad Mini.
Cool as the iPhone/iPad Mini hybrid is, its realisation is not yet written in stone but according to BGR, Apple could be prodded to eventually release the device if only to shore up what the tech site described as the decelerating growth trend of iPad and the tablet market as a whole.
While any or all of these products could be previewed by Apple at next week's 2014 WWDC, the best time to wait for them is at the iPhone 6 release date, the first instalment of which should come beginning on Sept 19 2014.