Are you ready for the iPhone 6?

Apple has lost a lot of ground in the smartphone market as of late, with many believing that the iPhone now plays second fiddle to the high-end Android devices released earlier this year. Needless to say there is a lot of attention focused on Apple to see what the Californian tech giant comes up with for its new iPhone, whether it's the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6. Here's where we take a look at the rumoured new iPhone 5S/6's release date

Will it be the new iPhone 5S or the iPhone 6?

This is a bit of an impossible question to answer as Apple will neither confirm nor deny even the existence of another iPhone being in the pipeline. However, we're pretty experienced in tracking Apple's new smartphone leaks and developments and the fact that there has been very little noise coming out of the Apple barracks suggests that the next iPhone's specs won't be a million miles away from the current iPhone 5's. So if you were to force us to guess whether it will be a semi-updated iPhone 5S or a completely new iPhone 6, we'd have to put out money on the former. 

History sides with us too, as ever since 2008; Apple has released a new generation of smartphone followed by a "S" launch of the phone roughly a year later. Take a look at the previous iPhone release dates below to see the obvious pattern.

Previous iPhone release dates

• iPhone 1st gen: June 29, 2007
• iPhone 3G: July 11, 2008
• iPhone 3GS: June 19, 2009
• iPhone 4: June 24, 2010
• iPhone 4S: October 14, 2011
• iPhone 5: September 21, 2012

iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 release date in UK

Now, before we start, you need to know that Apple threw everyone a curve ball when it released the iPad 4 less than eight months after releasing the iPad 3 (which it subsequently dropped like a bad habit, yet kept selling the iPad 2). 

So, while Apple's previous formbook shows that Apple releases a new iPhone roughly every 12.5 months – suggesting that the new iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 will have a September/October 2013 release date - you can't rule out Apple announcing one sooner (although Apple almost certainly won't). 

 In terms of solid new iPhone 5S/6 release date rumours, it's pretty thin on the ground out there. PC Advisor's Chris Martin says this about the possibility of a new iPhone 5S/6 launch at Apple's worldwide developer conference (WWDC). "Apple holds its worldwide developer conference (WWDC) annually in June and it's here that it could reveal the iPhone 6. This is the least likely as the event is focused on software. However, Apple has announced hardware at the event (last year was the MacBook Pro with Retina display) so it could use this to launch an iPhone." 

 We think the most likely time for an new iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 launch is September/October time, with the announcement being made at an dedicated event. We're basing this solely on Apple's previous tendency to launch iPhone at the time and in this sort of fashion.

It's also worth mentioning that there is talk that Apple might launch a budget version of the iPhone this year too. However, we need to stress that there has been very little to suggest this other than mere internet rumours so far...that said, the iPad mini was just an internet rumour so far. PCadvisor.