Over the weekend, Evan Blass said in a tweet that Apple was set to release their next generation iPhone, ‘iPhone 7’ during the week of September 12. To take it a step further, Blass now says that the release date for said iPhone will be on Friday, September 16.
This is a bit odd because the release date for the iPhone in years past were a bit later than the claimed date. Ever since Apple shifted to a September release schedule, the iPhone 6s was made available on September 25, the 6 on September 19 and the 5s was set for September 20.
With the earlier release date, this signals that Apple will be having its media press event sooner than usual.
In a separate report, Apfelpage suggests that Apple may shelve its iPhone 7 name. It says a Chinese supply chain source have seen packaging and labeling that suggests the new phone will be called the ‘iPhone 6SE’. With all of the rumors pointing at a smaller upgrade this time around, a rebranding of the iPhone 6 series could make sense.
Personally, the iPhone 6SE branding is a bit much. The naming scheme for the iPhone 6s Plus is already a bit much, imagine an iPhone 6SE Plus or iPhone 6SE Pro. Maybe its time for Apple to figure out another suffix.
Of course, the more likely option is for Apple to call it iPhone 7. Though, it’s not entirely impossible for the company to switch up the names. They did it with the iPhone SE, being an upgraded iPhone 5s with minor design changes.
