Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster told clients 'we expect the iPhone 7 to sport a unique design from the iPhone 6/6S'.

He believes it will do away with the home button, instead relying on the 3D Touch screen introduced in the 6S.

'As many have speculated, the addition of 3D Touch may provide Apple with a way to eliminate the home button on the phone and use the additional space to make the screen bigger or make the device smaller,' he said, according to Barrons.

The move would mean Apple has to move the Touch ID sensor to elsewhere on the phone.

'Another area on which we believe Apple may focus is battery life,' he said.

'Looking at Macs over the past few years, Apple has close to doubled battery life for its Macbook line up (largely 5 hour battery to ~10 hours). 

'We believe battery life is one of the biggest areas of potential improvement and one that might be most welcomed by customers.' 

Munster said he expects a strong Christmas for the firm, which is still to release its new Apple TV and iPad Pro.

'We believe there is anticipation of a strong holiday quarter driven by first-time December-quarter products including Apple Watch, new iPad Pro, and Apple TV.  

Previous claims have said the iPhone 7 handset will be superthin.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims the iPhone 7, which is unlikely to launch until at least September 2016, will be the firm's thinnest handset to date at just 6mm thick.

This would put on a par with the iPod touch, and would be almost a millimetre thinner than the current iPhone 6. 

Apple's original iPhone, released in 2007, was 12.3mm thick. By comparison the current iPhone 6 is 6.9mm thick, while the larger iPhone 6 Plus is 7.1mm. 

These devices are noticeably thinner than the iPhone 5S, which measures 7.6mm. 

However, thinner devices are potentially more vulnerable to being broken and the iPhone 6 Plus, for example, was criticised for bending in the pockets of its owners due to its larger, thinner design. 

The iPod touch is 6.1mm thick, but its screen is smaller than the iPhones - at just 4-inches. 

It doesn't take a SIM card, meaning it can be thinner because it needs fewer internal components as the iPhone.

If Mr Kuo's claims are true, Apple's next-generation handset would be its thinnest yet, but it would still be significantly thicker than the thinnest phone in the world - Vivo's X5 Max. 

Vivo's Android handset is just 4.75mm, while rival phone-maker Oppo's R5 is 4.85mm. 

Samsung also has a super-thin phone called the Galaxy A8 which measures 5.9mm. 

(dailymail.co.uk)