In a Friday report, Taiwan's Economic Daily News has revealed that the rumored 4.7-inch model of Apple's next-generation iPhone - likely to be called `iPhone 6' - will hit mass production next week; while the mass production of the rumored 5.5-inch iPhone 6 will likely commence in August.

According to the report, Apple's partner supplier Foxconn has efforts underway to begin the mass production of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 in the third week of July. The manufacturing of the 5.5-inch iPhone by Foxconn is scheduled to begin in mid-August.

The Taiwanese newspaper also pointed to a separate report from Chinese news service which revealed that, going by the comments made by China's Henan Provincial Commerce Department, Foxconn apparently plans to hire nearly 100,000 workers to cope with the high demand projected for the two new iPhone 6 models. Moreover, Foxconn is also reportedly planning to install automated robots called `Foxbots' on the iPhone 6 assembly line, for carrying out non-critical tasks such as locking screws and polishing parts.

In addition to the expected hiring of new workers by Foxconn, the report from the Chinese news service has also disclosed that around 10,000 employees will be hired by Apple's other partner supplier Pegatron, for completing its part of the iPhone 6 order.

Meanwhile, going by the speculations, Apple will launch both iPhone 6 models by the end of 2014. While the 4.7-inch model will likely be released in September, the launch of the 5.5-inch `phablet' may be delayed because of production difficulties.