iPhone 6 release date imminent as clones go for sale in China

The iPhone 5S(Apple)

Two months ahead of the September release of iPhone 6, the smartphone is already for sale in China.

Clones of the much awaited Apple flagship smartphone have already appeared in the Chinese market. The Chinese counterfeiters have released copycats of Apple's smartphone. Images of the cloned devices have been posted online by Nowhereelse.fr and put side-by-side next to Samsung Galaxy S III for comparison. Based on the photos, the two smartphones were about the same size.

The iPhone 6 clones, dubbed as Wico i6, are already on the rounds. The dummy phone, claimed to be based on the upcoming iPhone 6, boasts a 4.7-inch screen display. However, the Wico i6 smartphone is running on Android's operating system and costs $32.

Moreover, another Chinese mobile manufacturer, Goophone, is reported to release the Goophone i6 next month. The Goophone i6 comes with a quad-core Mediatek MT6582 chipset, 1GB RAM and 13 mega-pixel rear camera. Of course, the i6 is an Android-based device too. The handset costs $150.

Recently, details of the iPhone 6 were spotted in Amazon Japan. The post revealed that the iPhone 6 will be available on September 30. The post said that the items will be stocked on the said date. This is possible with the rumored September 19 launch date.

Meanwhile, iPhone 6 is rumored to come in two variants. One model will sport a 4.7 inch screen panel and the other has 5.5 inch screen display. While rumors claimed that the iPhone 6 will be released in September, some reports stated that the phablet version will arrive a month later.

There were talks that the 5.5 inch variant of iPhone 6 will be available in a few months after the release of the 4.7 inch model. The smaller version of iPhone 6 is rumored to be released in its usual launch window in September and the 5.5 inch phablet is rumored to be launched in October.

The new Apple flagship phone was predicted to pack the next-gen 64-bit A8 processor, iOS 8, as well as improved fingerprint sensor and camera. However, the Cupertino-based company has not revealed the official specs and features of its flagship phone.