News reports claimed Apple's earnings are plummeting and rivals, such as Samsung, are slowly overtaking the California-based company. Is Apple losing its touch in the market?

Samsung is currently enjoying the spotlight with the imminent release of its new smartphone dubbed as the Samsung Galaxy S4 on March 14 in New York.

On the other hand, Apple is speculated to unleash the two handsets in August of this year and early next year. According to AppleInsider, Chinese company Foxconn, the manufacturer behind most of Apple's products, will exclusively produce the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5S.

Apple are expected to include an improved camera in the iPhone 6 and/or iPhone 5S which is rumoured to be capable of taking "Super HD" pictures. In order to take snaps at that resolution it'll need to have at least a 13 mega-pixel camera.

The lack of NFC support on the iPhone 5 was one of the biggest criticisms aimed at Apple's smartphone. Rumours suggest that the iPhone 5S could include support for the contact-less technology which can be used to pay for items in retail stores. Other features rumoured to be included in the handset is the A7 quad core chip processor, Retina or IGZO screen display among others.

Below are the top five features that Apple should include in the upcoming iPhone 6 and iPhone 5S in order to regain their dominance in the smartphone market.

  1. Quad Core Processor - The iPhone 5 was launched last September with A6 dual core processor that is quickly bested by rivals which include quad core processors. For instance, the HTC One has a 1.7GHz quad-core processor that easily trumps the capabilities of the iPhone 5. The next generation of iPhone needs a faster and more powerful processor to further hasten the response and functions of the device.
  2. New Design - All previous generations of iPhone use a mix plastic, glass and aluminum. Although the new iPhone design is arguably the sleekest yet, fans complained that the iPhone was easily scratched and nicked. Thus, the new iPhone needed a fresh design. Moreover, adding fun colors will widen the options of the consumers and will attract younger generations of buyers.
  3. Better Screen Display - With the inception of bigger and better screen displays in the market, Apple needed to jump the bandwagon and equip the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5S with better screen display.
  4. Amazing Camera - Some smartphones include higher megapixels camera as high as 13MP. However, larger pixels are not always the better. Apple needed an incredible software supporting its camera functions in order to create an amazing camera.
  5. Updated Operation System - The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system has been incredibly successful and most fans have given it favorable reviews. It's certainly less buggy that Android and is frequently the platform chosen by entrepreneurs to launch new apps on. Still, fans hope that Apple continues to add new features to iOS.