As the iPhone 6 release date is rumoured to come as early as June 2014, two major features of the next iPhone model are shaping up fast, virtually confirming their inclusion on D-Day.

Sapphire will play a big role on this year's iPhone build, numerous reports have claimed. The expectation is the material will be used as glass cover for the device screen or a coating to blanket its whole body. Or both.

This possibility, Apple watchers said, has been largely confirmed when the iPhone maker inked a huge deal with sapphire maker GT Advanced Technologies in late 2013. By injecting hundreds of millions in investments, Apple is looking to secure its requirements for steady and cheap supply of sapphire.

Volume production should be up and ready anytime in 2014, which fits with the production and release calendar plotted by Apple for the iPhone 6.

And it appears that efforts to produce sapphire for iOS devices are in full swing, according to MacRumors. The Apple-centric tech site reported that GT Advanced Technologies is in a hunting spree, looking to beef up its sapphire specialists by up to 700 more personnel.

Such development clearly indicated that Apple and its manufacturing partners are hard at work to produce the iPhone 5S successor and deliver it on time or even earlier than planned.

With sapphire as glass cover or body coating for the iPhone 6 nearly a done deal, the next stop for Apple is the actual screen that its upcoming flagship will boast of. If Cowen & Company analyst Timothy Arcuri is to be believed, the iPhone 6 screen profile is already 'locked down' at 4.8-inch.

The screen size may not be that huge when pitted against iPhone's Android rivals, some of which even breaching the 6-inch mark, but the claim makes sense as the tech giant is known to emphasise one-hand navigation for its iOS smartphone even with a larger screen than its current 4-inch standard.

Arcuri's forecast echoes that of the projections previously voiced out by Peter Misek and Ming-chi Kuo, who are both known as Apple-focused tech analysts. Misek predicted that the iPhone 6 will sport a 4.8-inch display panel while Kuo favoured a profile that falls between 4.5-inchand 5-inch.

Aside from the screen size, the next iPhone, according to Apple Insider, will deliver "key software innovations," and a new Wi-Fi 802.11ac connectivity standard. The latter will ensure that iPhone 6 users will enjoy faster Internet access when connecting via Wi-Fi routers

The iPhone 6 release date, according to Cowen & Company, will be on Sept 2014 but a June debut is highly possible too with the device housed in a Liquidmetal case, powered by a 64-bit A8 CPU and governed by iOS 8.