Sept 19 iPhone 6 Release Date Exclusive for 4.7-Inch Build as 5.5-Inch Delayed for 2015 Rollout – Analyst

The iPhone 6 release date, rumoured set on September 19 2014, will likely unpack only the 4.7-inch version as production of the 5.5-inch model, touted as the first Apple phablet, reportedly bogged down.

According to Ming-chi Kuo of KGI Securities, the bigger 2014 iPhone will not be unboxed with its smaller sibling. Its commercial availability will have to wait until the latter part of the year or even as far as 2015.

The analyst, who has been fairly accurate in his previous forecasts for Apple products, blamed complicated production issues as the cause of the possible push back.

"We think the 5.5-inch model will also have issues with the yield rate of in-cell touch panel and color unevenness of metal casing," Kuo was reported by 9to5Mac as saying in his latest research note to investors.

Note that the well-known Apple watcher also issued a projection last week that detailed the manufacturing problems facing Apple's first wearable device - the iWatch. Kuo indicated on the report that assembly of the timepiece will not commence until November 2014, suggesting that the launch date will not happen as earlier planned.

The possibility remains that Apple may be able to rush the debut of both the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 and that of the iWatch but the devices could come in very short supplies. Particularly for the jumbo-sized iPhone, Kuo feared that shipment could be lower than 15 million units or just a fraction of earlier analyst projections that set the numbers to more than 60 million units.

To stay on the safe side, Apple may opt to simply delay the large-screen iPhone 6 market entry as the KGI report noted too that the company is already dealing with similar production bottlenecks for the 4.7-inch edition.

Yet according to MacRumors, addressing this is easier compared to that of the large-screen iPhone.

Also, in the event of lone 4.7-inch iPhone 6 thrust this year, Apple is likely to keep offering the iPhone 5S and 5C at discounted tag prices, thus serving as the budget iOS smartphones, added MacRumors on its report.

In the same report, Kuo explained that apart from problems on in-cell touch panel and colour unevenness, the rumoured sapphire front panel for the bigger iPhone 6 would not "easily pass the drop test near term."

This is one big technical glitch that likely would convince Apple to reveal the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 at a much later date, Apple Insider reported Kuo as saying.

The 4.7-inch iPhone 6, however, is free of such concerns and its release date is pretty much on course for September 19 2014 with numerous reports signaling that mass production of the device has already started this July.