iPhone 7 Rumors: Apple Release Date For Newest iPhone Is September 16, According To Leak


With everyone anxiously awaiting the release of the Apple iPhone 7, rumors have been swirling regarding the official release date. While Apple has not yet officially announced the date, it appears as though a trusted source may have been the first one to leak the information.

As Gordon Kelly of Forbes reports, the iPhone 7 will be released on September 16, and Apple will begin taking pre-orders on September 9. While Kelly has broken Apple news in the past, he is not the one responsible for this leak. Evan Blass, who is a reporter for VentureBeat and has been extremely reliable and accurate in the past when it comes to Apple leaks, first announced on Twitter that the iPhone 7 would be released the week of September 12. Kelly simply confirmed the source.

As expected, his over 228,000 followers wanted to know more information. While Blass initially seemed reluctant to say more, he eventually confirmed the pre-order date.

Since pre-orders generally begin a week before the release date, September 16 was the extrapolated launch event date, which makes sense when reviewing the recent dates that Apple has released new iPhone models.

While the first few generations of iPhones were released in the month of June, Apple eventually started pushing the release dates back towards the end of the year. The iPhone 4, which was released June 24, 2010, was the last iPhone to be released in the month of June. The iPhone 4s was then released October 14, 2011. The iPhone 5 was released September 21, 2012, which started the tradition of releasing new models in September. The iPhone SE was released last March, but it appears as though that was an outlier.

As Kelly notes, the majority of the features for the new iPhone 7 have already been confirmed, but it may actually be called something different.

“As a seemingly more minor release designed as a third evolution of the iPhone 6, news broke recently that it could be called the ‘iPhone 6SE’ rather than the iPhone 7 – which would make a lot of sense. Furthermore it ties in with Apple’s much anticipated plans for the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone in 2017 where talk of a complete redesign has already leaked. Such a handset was never likely to be called the iPhone 7S.”

While the name is not ultimately important, it is still interesting to see what Apple decides to call it. Since releasing the iPhone 3G in 2008, Apple has released a follow-up model of the same number with a letter at the end of it. The iPhone 3GS was released in 2009. The 4S was released a year after the 4. The 5C and 5S were both released a year after the 5. The 6S and 6S Plus were both released a year after the 6. If Apple continues the pattern, the next phone will indeed be called the iPhone 7.

Kelly also notes that next year is the 10-year anniversary of the original iPhone release date. While it is possible that Apple simply names it the iPhone 7S, it would somewhat dilute the anniversary. That means that either the upcoming iPhone is going to be known as the 6SE, or it will be called the 7. The 10-year anniversary iPhone would then be referred to as the 8. That is only speculation, but Apple likely has something big planned for next year.

Even with the confirmation from a trusted source, Apple is unlikely to officially announce the new iPhone until a few days, most likely two, before the pre-order date. This means that the Apple announcement will come on Wednesday, September 7, according to Kelly.

“From this we should expect Apple to schedule the phone’s official announcement for September 7th.”

With the leaked release date of the new iPhone 7 still over a month away, rumors will continue to speculate regarding the final features, design, and name.

[Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images]

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