Rumors related to Apple's upcoming products are always circulating on the Internet, especially with the launch of the new iPhone just months away. A new report now claims that Apple's next-generation iPhone will feature a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera with smaller pixels.

Following the release of the iPhone 6 towards the end of 2014, Apple has been widely expected to follow up with the launch of the next generation iPhone 7 about 12 months later. The company is also expected to update both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus with the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, and release the iPhone 7 in September this year, by when the iPhone 6 would complete the one-year-cycle.

There have been several speculations about the features of Apple's upcoming iPhone. Some reports had suggested that the iPhone 7 would feature a flexible display and battery, based on a patent filed by the company in 2015. Recently, it was also rumored that the iPhone 7 camera would sport a similar iSight sensor unit featured in the iPhone 6, along with a small format telephoto camera, allowing users to capture better photos by analyzing parameters, such as depth and range, thus making it better than singular sensors.

Now Kevin King, IHS Technology Research Director for China, has claimed on Chinese microblogging service Weibo that Apple's next-generation iPhone will feature an improved 12-megapixel camera. This follows previous claims by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that Apple's next flagship would mark the first major improvement in terms of camera since the iPhone 4S was released in 2011. Moreover, in November 2014, well-known Apple pundit John Gruber of Daring Fireball had also stated that the next iPhone could see "the biggest camera jump ever" with a dual-lens system that delivers DSLR-quality imagery.

Since the release of iPhone 4s in late 2011, Apple has been using an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera sensor, and before that, the iPhone 4 featured a 5-megapixel camera and the iPhone 3GS sported a 3-megapixel camera. If the reports of Apple's next-generation iPhone coming with an improved 12-megapixel camera are indeed true, then it would mark the first megapixel bump in almost four years.