iPhone 7 vs 6S release date: will aging iPhone 6 survive?
Apple is about to introduce the iPhone 6S or the iPhone 7 or both, as it prepares to hold a media event unveiling the official release date of its next generation smartphone lineup. But while much of the focus has been on whether the Cupertino company will repeat itself with a same-looking 6S or jump straight to a newly redesigned 7 model, the secondary question is whether the iPhone 6 itself will survive the lineup makeover – and that could be key to revealing Apple’s strategy going forward.
The traditional approach to the 2015 makeover, which we’ll call Lineup One, sees the iPhone 6 debut as the new flagship phone. That means the aging iPhone 5S can be counted on to stick around as the bottom of the lineup, as Apple likes to keep a free-with-contract option available just so it can say it offers such a model, whether anyone ends up buying it or not. In such case the middle of Lineup One would be filled by either the existing iPhone 6 or instead some colorful plastic takeoff such as an iPhone 6C – though it’s a bit difficult to picture the all metal design of the iPhone 6 being made over in iPhone 5C style plastic.
Lineup Two is where Apple gets bolder. The new flagship is the iPhone 7, offering a new styling and design and finally throwing off the pattern of only redesigning the iPhone externally every two years. The iPhone 6S is also a part of this lineup, but debuts as the mid priced model right out of the gate. The iPhone 5S is discontinued. The only remaining question here is whether the iPhone 6 drops to the free-with-contract model, or again, whether it’s replaced by an iPhone 6C. In any case we won’t have to wait long to find out.
The media event debuting the new lineup takes place this Wednesday, and Apple typically puts its new phones on sale within two to ten days after the event. So the iPhone 6S/7 release date will take place within the first half of September. We’ll just have to wait and see whether the iPhone 6 remains a part of the equation.
Phil Moore
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