A significant re-design of Apple's iPhone is expected in on the 2012 release date, but a new report says the company will be bringing out its thinnest phone yet, possibly breaking the 8-millimeter mark. 

Apple is rumored to use new display technology that will place the phone's touch sensors inside the panel, instead of above them. This will allow the screen to be thinner. 

The current iPhone's touch sensor and LCD panel are two separate components, which makes the phone quite clunky. When merged together the construction of the iPhone would be considerably thinner.

The report comes a week after the Korean news site ET News revealed that the next generation iPhone would replace its glass display with Liquidmetal technology that will result in a thinner and lighter phone.The new iPhone is also expected to get a thinner battery,which will cut down the overall size. 

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo , told Fox news that he believes the reports are true and the new iPhone could be 7.9 millimeters thick, especially if the case adopts Liquidmetal technology. 

The material itself isn't actually liquid. It's a mix of titanium, nickel, copper, and zirconium, which results in a tough and tight finish that feels as smooth as glass or liquid. The technology was discovered at the California Institute of Technology in 1992 and Apple purchased worldwide exclusive rights to use it in their products in 2012, according to PC World.

Nano

The case isn't the only feature of the iPhone that is expected to get a downsize. A smaller nano-SIM is on its ways, according to Valuewalk.com. The nano-SIM would be a third smaller than the current micro-SIM and allow more space for other features in the phone.

 Rumor Roundup

Release Date:  It's likely the iPhone will launch in October-a year after the iPhone 4S update. While Apple enthusiasts are hoping for a June release, it seems Apple has broken its summer release pattern. The new technology and component shortages leads to delays in production, according to Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray.

OLED Display: The latest iPhone 5 rumors point to a 1280 x70 resolution OLED screen, which will replace the traditional LCD display. The Korea Times recently reported that Samsung has increased the production of the OLED screen for the new iPhone. The screen is also expected to come with curved glass edge-to-edge display. Since the launch of the new iPad, Apple enthusiasts are convinced the phone will come with a retina display. A bigger 4-inch or 4.6-inch screen is also on the rumors cards, after many iPhone customers have criticized the iPhone screen for being too small.

 Processor: The iPhone 5 will probably come with an A6 Chip, after the iPad was released with the A5X quad-core processor-- touted as twice as fast and four times better performance than Tegra 3 chip. An A6 chip would double the power of the A5 chip that is currently used in the iPhone 4s and the iPad 2. An unnamed source, who claims to have an iPad 3 prototype, sent Boy Genius Report pictures of a diagnostic tool called iBoot, which states a chip model number that appears to be that of the A6 chip.
iOS 6 Software: Ars Technica has published some analysis that suggests some Apple products are already running on iOS 6 software. The analysis would suggest that Apple is either doing a test run on some of its new products. We might expect the new software at the Worldwide Developers Conference, where the iOS 5 software was revealed last year.

Better Battery: The iPhone 4s's battery life is one of its most criticized features. Apple tried to fix the bug with an iOS 5.0.1 update, and while some users said it had improved their battery life, other complained that the performance wasn't good enough. It is therefore likely that Apple are focusing on overall higher battery life and performance, which is paramount if it keeps introducing battery draining features like Siri.

Sophisticated Siri: Tech analysts from the iOS 6 News Blog predict that the new iOS 6 operating system, which is expected to be released ahead of the iPhone 5, will bring with it an even more sophisticated voice recognition system. An upgrade to Siri could possibly mean a better developed interface. Rumors suggest the feature will be activated by simply shaking the phone and website search, navigation and social media sharing will all be possible through a simple voice command.