Apple will unveil the next edition of the iPhone at a major press event on Sept. 10, according to All Things D.Other than the purported date for the unveiling of the so-called iPhone 6, the site's Ina Fried did not offer any details about what else we might expect from Apple with the arrival of the company's first new smartphone since the debut of the iPhone 5 last September.
If Apple does lift the curtain on its next-generation iPhone on Sept. 10, it would be two days short of a full year since the iPhone 5 was revealed. While Apple CEO Tim Cook is rumored to be under pressure from Apple's board to step up the pace of innovation and product release schedules, that lag between new iPhone releases wouldn't be particularly unusual for the company—Apple went 16 months between introducing the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S , for example.
But as Fried noted, even as Apple has continued to enjoy robust sales of the iPhone this year, the company has seen its overall share of the global smartphone market erode in the face of competition from makers of Android-based handsets, led by Apple's courtroom nemesis Samsung.
IDC this month reported that Apple's share of the smartphone market slipped from 16.6 percent in the second quarter of 2012 to 13.2 percent in the same period this year. Meanwhile, phones running Google's Android mobile operating system accounted for an impressive 79.3 percent of the smartphone OS market in the second quarter, up from 69.1 percent a year ago, according to the research firm.
Android increased its lead thanks in large part to brisk sales for Samsung and its flagship Galaxy S4, but also gains made by LG, Huawei, Lenovo, and ZTE, each of which saw double-digit unit shipment volumes in the millions, IDC reported.
Other rumors emerging in the summer months have pointed to Apple preparing a "budget" iPhone for emerging markets, with purportedly leaked images giving us an idea of what such a device might look like, as well as reports that the company's next-generation iPhone and iPad will feature larger screens than their predecessors.
Meanwhile, it's also been rumored for months that Apple plans to unveil a smart watch or some other form of wearable tech as its next big market-defining product, possibly before the end of the year.
By Damon Poeter
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