iPhone 6: New Specs Leaked Ahead of Expected Sept. 19 Release Date

**Editor’s Note: Click here for our list of July’s hottest selling smartphones to see how Apple’s iPhone fared against the competition.**

We’ve been expecting that Apple would dive deeper into the mobile-payments game for years. It seems that every year since about 2011, there’s been a rumor about the next iPhone offering near-field communication (NFC) technology. Well, this time, it might finally happen when Apple announces its next iPhone on Sept. 9.

Apple will unveil its own payment platform involving NFC, sources told Wired this week. The company is in a great position to do so, the website noted, particularly with the massive amount of credit cards it already has on file through iTunes and the gigantic number of potential users it has considering the millions of people who have iPhones and iPads.

What else new can we expect on the iPhone 6? Well, for starters, there’s a good chance, if industry insiders are correct, that we’ll see two versions introduced a week from Tuesday – a 4.7-inch version and a 5.5-inch phone that will fit into the “phablet” category. Improvements are likely to include a faster processor and a better camera.

Since Apple’s iPhone 5s and 5c went on sale 10 days after the company held its media announcement last year – and considering that announcement is being staged again on the second Tuesday in September, we fully expect the new phone(s) to go on sale on Sept. 19, with pre-orders being taken a few days earlier.

Follow senior online managing editor @Craig_Galbraith on Twitter.