The iPhone 5s and 5c have managed to capture the attention and affection of millions of users since launch in the third quarter of last year. However, while both models are powerful devices in their own right, they both represent only slight evolutionary improvements over the previous iPhone 5. The iPhone 6 is Apple's chance to change things. To once again try and invigorate and pump some innovation into the smartphone industry. As expected, interest in the purported iPhone 6 is extremely high, with a number of designers putting together the obligatory concept designs of what we could be about to receive.
If there was ever any doubt that we're now firmly in the midst of an iPhone rumor storm, then it's fairly safe to say that the events of the last few days should put to rest any lingering wonderments.
The Apple iWatch has been rumored year-in, year-out, but with rumors suggesting that the Cupertino's inaugural smartwatch effort has its own dedicated development team echoing the sentiments of analysts that the device will finally manifest in 2014, we're very much hoping that the announcement of the elusive gadget is imminent. Hitherto, there's been a distinct lack of hard evidence with regards to the device, with only tidbits of speculation allied to numerous concepts, but today's render of a curved iWatch design is one of the better ones we've stumbled across so far.
As the iPhone 5s grows closer to the end of its lifecycle, attention has already shifted to what people think, hope or want Apple to offer when they finally announce its replacement. The iPhone 6 is always going to garner plenty of attention, and as is always the case with big iPhone releases, people have been hard at work creating 3D modeled representations of what they want the handset to look like and which features they hope make the jump from wishlist to reality.
With Google having announced the smartwatch-optimized Android Wear OS as short while ago, it's looking increasingly likely that Apple will respond with a device of its own. Even though, as revealed last year, the Cupertino company has apparently assigned a dedicated team to the process of developing the so-called "iWatch," we don't, as yet, have much idea as to its form factor. The various concept designers have regularly offered their takes on what might be in the offing, and Nermin Hasanovic's latest effort presents a very circular, Moto 360-esque approach.
New iPhone 6 concepts are a daily occurrence just now, and even though we think we know that Apple will be going bigger with its next flagship, pinning down a specific design or form factor is proving difficult. As Apple continues to keep its plans under wraps, this gives designers and fans a license to dream, and Sahanan Yogarasa, maker of today's concept, has done exactly that.
We've seen an abundance of iPhone 6 concepts in recent months, and with the consensus being that Apple will go considerably larger with its next hardware upgrade, most designers have been experimenting with new form factors. There's no denying that the iPhone's aesthetic hasn't changed a great deal from the iPhone 4, and as such, we've seen concepts based on the likes of the iPad Air, iPod touch, and even the iPhone 5c. Now, though, resident designer Martin Hajek has come up with an intriguing set of renders based upon the oft-forgotten iPod nano.
The introduction of the radically-redesigned iOS 7 brought a shock to the system of many everyday iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users back in September, but after the previous year's Maps fiasco and the subsequent shake-up this led to in the iOS design team, the techies among us saw it coming. With Jony Ive's influence now apparent throughout the company's mobile OS, we fully expect OS X to follow suit given Apple's craving for uniformity, and designer Danny Giebe has presented us with a concept idea of what this may look like.
A new iPad Pro concept cooked up by the folks of German design outfit CURVED Labs demonstrates precisely the kind of product that power users of the Apple slate would probably be seeking. Packing a sumptuous 12.9-inch 4K display of almost 300ppi, the device, which does seem a little idealistic if we're honest, manages to retain the same thinness as the iPad Air, and although we doubt that Apple could possibly stuff such a high-spec IPS panel in this kind of form factor, it's not as though Jony Ive and his hardware design team haven't pulled off similarly improbable feats in the past.
The iPhone 5s, Apple's current flagship, is scarcely six months old, but in smartphone terms, it's an old-timer. In a day when our supposedly beloved handsets have a shelf-life of around one year before we dispose of them and look for something else, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that talk of the iPhone 6 has been prevalent for a good few months already. And now, an interesting concept of the next-gen Apple smartphone, which packs a sumptuous, iPad Air-like design, has been showcased by perpetual designer Ran Avni, and in combining the most popular iOS device with best-designed gadget on the Cupertino company's roster, there was only going to be one outcome..
