iPhone man typing
A man types on his Apple iPhone as he walks past an Apple logo hanging in a glass enclosure above the 5th Ave Apple Store in New York.Reuters

The launch of Apple iPhone 7 is less than a month away, and yet we continue to see rumours about the new flagship on a regular basis. Latest word on what to expect in the new iPhone series is that Apple might introduce a new 256GB iPhone variant this year.

The company's official plans regarding the iPhone 7 are a mystery, but the leaked details drop major hints about the upcoming flagship. Industry sources have revealed that NAND flash vendors, including Samsung and SK Hynix, have increased the prices of their chips due to high demand for upcoming smartphones, particularly the iPhone 7, which is said to offer 256GB onboard storage, DigiTimes reported.

According to the report, the prices of the NAND chip will continue to soar until the fourth quarter of this year. Industry sources also noted that Apple's purchase of NAND flash is "critical to the overall consumption." After all, the Cupertino tech titan had consumed 15 percent of the entire NAND supply in 2015 for the iPhone 6 and 6s series.

But it remains unclear whether the 256GB storage option will be available in both iPhone 7 and 7 Plus or only for the bigger variant, which is also expected to get dual camera setup on the back.

The latest information about the increased storage in the new iPhone comes a month after the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple will ditch the 16GB storage option in favour of the 32GB model in the iPhone 7 series. With that said, the new storage options would be 32GB, 128GB and 256GB, which will finally put an end to the storage problems.

Read: iPhone 7 price details of 32GB, 128GB and 256GB variants of iPhone 7, 7 Plus and 7 Pro leaked

Currently, all the flagship smartphones come with minimum 32GB storage, which makes Apple's 16GB offering look ancient. In fact, Asus already has a Zenfone Deluxe model that offers 256GB storage along with 6GB RAM in the market. The smartphone standards have reached new levels and it's time Apple keeps up with that.