Those who published the image admit it could well be a fake

Mar 28, 2014 14:45 GMT  ·  By

A strange image has appeared online courtesy of the Frenchies at Nowehereelse.fr, depicting what looks to be a schematic of the upcoming iPhone 6 from Apple Inc. According to the data in this image, which remains to be confirmed, the phone would feature a display that measures around five inches on the diagonal.

The site notes that the document is “obviously intended to calibrate machines that affix the Apple logo.” The lines and the numbers showing the relation between the phone’s edges and the logo itself indeed seem to indicate that the schematic is meant to give manufacturers a precise notion of where everything goes on this phone.

If all the data is correct, the phone would measure 150mm (10 centimeters / 5.90 inches) in length and 85mm (8.5 centimeters / 3.3 inches) in width, according to the French site. This would make the device considerably bigger than the current-generation iPhones.

Such dimensions would permit “the integration of a screen measuring approximately 5 inches in diagonal,” as per the report. The iPhone 6 has been rumored to sport a 4.7-inch display, which is close enough to the figure above.

“However keep in mind that we could be in the presence of a fake or a schematic plan produced as part of the design of a common Chinese copy early,” the site cautions.

Indeed, Chinese knockoffs spring like mushrooms after the rain whenever the California company rolls out a new generation of smartphones, but how could small-time phone makers in China get their hands on the precious document even before its going into production?

Rumor has it that iPhone 6 will ship not in one flavor, but in two variations sporting differently-sized displays. One version is said to have the aforementioned 4.7-inch screen, while another will reportedly offer a huge 5.5-inch display with a resolution considerably bigger than anything out of Apple so far.

The larger screens are meant to rival Samsung’s growing army of phablets as Tim Cook seems to be on a mission to regain lost market share. His first such move is said to have been the iPhone 5c, which proved to be a flop according to many company watchers.

However, the iPhone 5c can be considered a replacement of the discontinued iPhone 5, which would have probably amassed similarly low sales, if not lower without the added oomph (different design, color choices, new cases, etc.).