Every year since 2007 Apple has announced a new iPhone. Tonight is their sixth release event. Love it or hate it, the iPhone is continually the highest selling smartphone in the world, with record launches coming each generation. Since the launch of the iPhone 4S last October, which was seen by many as an incremental upgrade over the iPhone 4, rumours have suggested that Apple may have a little more up its sleeve tonight as they launch the 6^th generation of iPhone to the waiting world.

Name

While we can be certain that the name will include the word ‘iPhone’ somewhere, violent arguments have broken out across the internet about what the actual name will be. Many are referring to this new device as the iPhone 5 as it seems like a natural progression of name from 4 and 4S, but to call the phone this would be a large error of judgment on Apple’s part. Whatever we see tonight will be the 6^th generation of iPhone, and calling it the iPhone 5 may confuse (and annoy) some consumers (i.e. me).

1. iPhone
2. iPhone 3G
3. iPhone 3GS
4. iPhone 4
5. iPhone 4S
6. Whatever is announced tonight

What has been speculated is that Apple will follow the naming scheme that they use for every hardware product bar the iPhone to this point, and choose to drop the suffix, referring to the product as iPhone. As with the iPad announced earlier this year, initial advertising may refer to it as the new iPhone and, should it be necessary to pinpoint a specific model, the phone would be referred to as iPhone (6^th generation).

Screen

In recent times, Apple has begun to expand its Retina Display branding beyond the confines of the iPhone and iPod Touch, with both the new iPad and MacBook Pro sporting the branding. The two previous generations have sported 960 x 640 panels at 3.5″, but one Verge reader suggested that the latest model may have an elongated 3.99″ panel with a 1152 x 640 resolution. Further investigation into the code of iOS 6 has revealed that if pushed to 1136 x 640, the software will display an extra row of apps on the home screen, thus making it incredibly likely that we will see a taller iPhone today.

Hardware

Numerous component leaks and the rumours of a taller screen have made the rounds, and one Gizmodo reader had a go at a mockup of the new iPhone, and he can’t be too far off.

Internally things are a bit murkier, but a quad core A6 chip, more RAM and a new mini dock connector seem certain to be included for the first time. A camera upgrade could also be on the way, and 4G LTE support for Verizon, Sprint and AT&T in the US seems certain, especially after the LTE chips found in the new iPad. After EE’s LTE announcement yesterday, CEO Olaf Swantee teased that more devices supporting the network would be announced soon, and an LTE iPhone could prove to be the catalyst to the LTE growth that EE desires.

Whatever happens, we’ll be there with all the news from 6PM BST in our liveblog, so make sure to follow along to get all the news as it happens!