Apple’s annual iPhone launch event has been confirmed for 7 September.

The event will take place at 10 AM PDT, or 6 PM BST, in San Francisco.

Press invitations have now been sent out for this data; as usual, the keynote will also be streamed live.

Apple has now not launched a new generation of the iPhone for two years. In September 2015 Apple unveiled the iPhone 6S and in September 2014 the iPhone 6.

For some time Apple has tended to launch new generations of the iPhone every two years.

However, rumours sites have reported that Apple may not do so this year, simply releasing a new version of the iPhone 6 will incremental additions.

Instead, the iPhone 7 may be launched in 2017 instead as the company marks the tenth anniversary of the first iPhone being launched.

Venturebeat.com reported that the device would be available on the week of 12 September. It also said that pre-orders would be available from 9 September.

In late July, Apple reportedly sold its billionth iPhone. The milestone was announced by CEO Tim Cook at an employee meeting in Cupertino.

However, overall, 2016 has been a year of falling sales for Apple. The company sold 40.4 million iPhones in its Q3 results, down 15 percent from a year earlier.

According to Gartner figures, Apple saw a sales decline of 7.7 percent in the second quarter of 2016.

There are several rumours about what features will be added on the new device. One of these is that the standardised headphone jack will be removed.

Other rumours include a touch-sensitive home button.

However, if the iPhone 7 is being launched in 2017, Apple will presumably be saving its most ground-breaking features for next year’s event.