Of all upcoming Apple devices, the iPod Touch 6th Gen is the least certain to arrive this year. The release date of the iPhone 6s, the iPad mini 4, and even the iOS 9 seem to have already been plotted, complete with schedule for beta release prior final launching.
If the iPhone 6s and the iPad mini 4, or the iPad Pro, will be released on September, the month where the complete and finalized iOS 9 is also said to arrive after beta testings, where does this put the iPod Touch 6th Gen in Apple's timeframe? The September launching of the iPod Touch 6th Gen can be possible only in the sense that it is the month where Apple will update all its devices -new and old- with the iOS 9. But that would also mean it will arrive alongside with iPhone 6s which seems unlikely to happen.
Could Apple settle for October or later iPod Touch 6th Gen launching then? Guessing the release date of the upcoming iPod Touch device is a tricky thing because its release pattern has been disrupted. For another thing, it's been two years since the latest iPod Touch 5th Gen has been released. The two year gap is quite unusual for Apple, and in that two year gap the tech manufacturer has not provided any update for the iPod Touch 5th Gen either.
In a hands-on review of the iPod Touch 5th Gen with iOS 8.1.3 on board, the general impression revealed that the device was not as fast as newer devices like the iPhone 5c or iPhone 6 but it wasn't incredibly slow, either. The same source went on by saying that, while there was a few seconds lag when switching from one app to another, it shouldn't hinder users from upgrading as it was better than what the tech reviewer had experienced with an iPad 2 running on iOS 8.
This fact leads us to two possibilities: One is that Apple may simply upgrade the iPod Touch 5th Gen and bring the hottest features its current devices have to the music player handset. Apple has already done this with the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, and it can do it as well through an iPod Touch 2015 update.
That isn't unlikely given that the iPod Touch 6th Gen is rumored to have iPhone-like specs and features, sans the calling functionality. If Apple will simply update the iPod Touch 5th Gen, then a September release date may be possible after all.
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