Apple confirms Sept 7 event: What to expect

The current model. Photo / Getty Images

Apple has confirmed it will stage a launch event on September 7 (September 8 NZT)

An invite features only one phrase, "Far Out", but a Bloomberg report holds it will include the iPhone 14.

The news service cites un-named "people with knowledge of the matter".

Regardless, it is not a bold prediction. Over the past decade, Apple has always staged a major iPhone launch in the Southern Hemisphere spring. And for the past five years, it's always been in September - bar a slip to October in the Covid-hit 2020.

Another constant: Broadly speaking, Apple has followed a cycle of a new design every two years, with more of an incremental upgrade in the in-between years. If it holds to this cycle, then the iPhone 14 will have a new look.

Here, things are a lot more speculative. Popular scuttlebutt holds the iPhone 14 Pro models will eliminate the notch at the top of the display in favour of a new design.

Rumours were all over the place for a bit, but it looks like Apple will go with some combination of a circular hole-punch cutout for the camera paired with a pill-shaped cutout to house to key Face ID components, according to Mac Rumors.

Multiple new Macs, low-end and high-end iPads, and three Apple Watch models are also expected at Apple's next launch event.

Samsung has recently been pushing foldable-screen phones and IDC says it now has a degree of traction, with sales of foldables jumping from 1.9 million in 2020 to 7 million last year.

Apple has filed several patents for foldable-display technology, but has yet to indicate any plans to release a device.