A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown Shanghai September 10, 2013.
A woman looks at the screen of her mobile phone in front of an Apple logo outside its store in downtown Shanghai September 10, 2013. Reuters

For its refresh efforts this 2015, Apple is likely to deliver two key upgrades with the iPhone 7 release date. One involves the tech giant’s supersized phone and the other – the new killer features that iOS 9 will bring to the table.

iPhone 7 Plus

There is no turning back, it appears, for Apple in the phablet market. The latest data is proving that the tech giant made the right decision when it supersized its flagship phone and ditched its 4-inch screen standard. The iPhone maker, in fact, offered two models – the 4.7-inch regular handset and the phablet iPhone 6 Plus at 5.5-inch – the decision led to tons of cash inflow.

As of March 2015, the 6 Plus is credited by Kantar Worldpanel, per the report by 9to5Mac, as holder of 44 per cent of the global phablet market, indicating that Apple’s entry into the stage it shunned for a number of years is paying off big time. By all accounts, the company will soon dominate the market that its chief rival Samsung had invented in 2011.

Needless to say, the iPhone 6 Plus will not be the last from Apple. Buoyed by the incredible sales that the 6 Plus has chalked up so far, a second iOS phablet is surely in the works. Whether it will be called the iPhone 6S Plus or 7 Plus, one thing is for sure – the 2015 version will be far better than the last build.

Key iOS 9 features

Now phablet or the regular model, what really defines the iPhone killer features is the operating system and for this year it will be the iOS 9. To be sure, this year’s version will represent vast improvements from last year such as fixes on performance, stability and security. Along this line, Federico Viticci of MacStories shared his thoughts on what would make iOS 9 better than its predecessors.

BGR picked up the blog post by Viticci and highlighted two key upgrades that Apple fans will surely welcome. The first involves iOS extension issues, specifically on the discoverability area. Fixing this would “make the technology more consistent useful, and approachable at the same time,” the Apple-focused blogger was reported by BGR as saying.

Also, allowing users significant amount of personalisation options in iOS 9 would certainly rock the Apple universe, Viticci wrote. While in-house Apple apps are definitely more optimised for iOS 9, many users would surely prefer third-party applications – Google Maps and Chrome for instance – and they ought to be given the freedom to use these apps in default mode, the same report suggested.

Apple, however, has the last say on the matter and it should be revealed on or before the iPhone 7 release date this 2015. And going by the tech giant’s previous moves, the next iPhone unboxing will likely happen between September and October this year.

To report problems or leave feedback on this article, email: r.pineda@ibtimes.com.au.

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