Apple is feeling the heat from Samsung in the smartphone market and is constantly exploring ways to better compete with the South Korean electronics giant, including a possible re-write of its mobile operating system to leverage SoCs with as many as 8 processing cores ahead of next year's iPhone 6 launch. From Apple Insider:

The report comes by way of Jeffries analyst Peter Misek, who on Wednesday released an abundance of forward-looking information on Apple's product roadmap, supposedly acquired through his traditional channel checks and supply chain sources.

While discussing a number of perceived bottlenecks that are reportedly preventing Apple from accelerating the launch of a 4.8-inch "iPhone 6" into the 2013 calendar year, Misek mentioned display yield issues, challenges in advancing to a 20-nanomemter manufacturing process for its next A-series mobile processor, and a desire to re-engineer its mobile operating system handle A-series processors with as many as 8 processing cores.

 Apple may re-architect iOS to utilize more processor cores ahead of iPhone 6