iPhone 6 Sept 19 Release Date Firms Up as Apple Maps Out 2015 Production of 14nm A9 Chip

The iPhone 6 release date this 2014, supposedly on September 19, appears to stand on solid ground as Apple is reported to have commenced preparing for the mass production of its next-gen A-series processing chip - the 14nm A9 CPU.

The A9 processor is likely the powerhouse that will be inside of the 2015 iPhones and iPads and with Apple already training its eye on the large-scale production of the chip, it is assumed that A8 is all but confirmed for the iPhone 6 this year and its cousin iOS tablets.

Also, the rumoured mid-September availability of the next iPhone seems to have gained further traction with the latest development that essentially signals everything about the device has been finalised save for its actual commercial debut.

Now producing the A9 chip, according to DigiTimes, could soon graduate into a turf war that would involve four major actors - Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Globalfoundries and Samsung.

The last two names, however, have the upper hand at the moment as they are slated to rollout the chip in 14nm process beginning in the initial months of 2015, probably churning out as much as 60,000 wafers, DigiTimes said on its report.

The Taiwanese publication pointed to supply chain insiders in Asia as source of its information.

In the same report, DigiTimes noted too that Intel and TSMC remain in the running to secure A9 chip orders from Apple on 2015, which suggests that for the iPhone 6 successor Apple plans to deal with multiple partners for its processing chip requirements.

It is believed as well that for the A8-powered iPhone 6, the key names that Apple will rely on are TSMC and Samsung.

Meanwhile, as volume production for the next iPhones is reportedly approaching the final stage, photos that allegedly showed off the inner component configurations of the device leaked out. The new set of images, according to MacRumors, confirmed the earlier speculations that the handset's control buttons have been redesigned and relocated.

With the iPhone 6 innards revealed, it was hinted too that the device will sport a larger screen from that of the iPhone 5S, added the same report.

"This change would seem to be consistent with the larger size of the iPhone 6 and the reported shift in the location of the power button from the top edge to the right edge," said the MacRumors report.

The Apple-centric tech site based its report on claims that were published by Taiwanese blog site Apple.Club.tw.

Reports from Germany and China indicate that the exact iPhone 6 release date is on September 19 2014 and the iOS 8-powered device will come in two screen sizes - 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch.