Business Insider
This is an odd move for Apple - usually the company announces its new iPhones in September and launches them within the same month, typically about 10 days following the unveiling.
This year, however, Kuo believes Apple will announce two new iPhones in August before the company starts selling them in September, as the analyst wrote in a recent note sent to clients obtained by The China Post.
Even though the launch is still months away, Kuo has already made many predictions about what to expect from Apple's next iPhones. According to Kuo, Apple will release iPhones in 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screen sizes again, just like it did with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus last year. This time around, though, Apple's new Force Touch technology is expected to be the phones' selling point.
Force Touch is a touch technology that can tell the difference between hard and soft taps. It's already in the Apple Watch and Apple's new MacBook, and multiple reports (including one from The Wall Street Journal) have said that the tech will come to the next iPhone too.
Kuo is regarded as being one of the most accurate Apple analysts in the business. He nailed almost all of the specifications that would be in the iPhone 6 last April, several months before the phones actually launched. He accurately predicted everything from the new screen resolutions to the fact that the phones would support NFC.
He also successfully refuted some other rumors surrounding the iPhone 6, such as that it would come with a new reversible USB charger. Last August, Kuo also reported that the Apple Watch wouldn't launch in 2014 ahead of Apple's press event.
That being said, sometimes his information is a little off, but his accurate predictions seem to be much more frequent than his inaccurate ones. For example, he predicted that the iPhone 6 Plus would be delayed last year. This is probably because it seems like most of his information comes from Apple's supply chains, and it's likely that their plans change throughout the production process.
At the same time, Samsung is reportedly planning to launch its next Galaxy Note phone a month earlier than usual in July to beat Apple's next 5.5-inch iPhone to market.