Apple is believed to deploy a big 2017 upgrade of the iMac series, which reports said is in line with the tech giant's renewed commitment to provide the tools for professional users in the Mac platform. Now the big questions are when exactly the device release date will be and what to expect in terms of specs and feature bumps?

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It's likely that newly discovered Apple patent dropped some hints when it comes to the feature upgrades packed with the iMac 2017. According to WCCFTech, the upcoming machine will include a Magic Keyboard and with the package will come the same feature that was introduced with the Mac Pro 2016 unboxing.

The patent that Patently Apple first pointed to described "a Touch Bar destined for the iMac keyboard," the report said. Touch Bar is a strip of LED panel that sits on the top portion of the high-end MacBook Pro 2016 models. As replacement for the physical function keys, Touch Bar offers short cut keys to users and the function corresponds to the active application on the laptop screen.

If the patent discovery picked up by WCCFTech will materialize, the next iMac will debut boasting of a Magic Keyboard that features the same Touch Bar found on the latest MacBook Pro models.

And possibly included in the same iMac input package is a fingerprint reader mechanism that is currently found on iPhones and iPads. The same set up will also be known as Touch ID and like in the iOS devices it will offer security and privacy protection when unlocking the iMac and when using the machine for online transactions.

As for the spec bumps that will roll out with the 2017 refresh, Macworld said the iMacs to come will still skip the touchscreen feature, which should give more credence to the supposed adding of Touch Bar on the upcoming model. And with the MacOS to run the device likely to be upgraded in the coming months, its highly likely that the next iMac will boast of native support for artificial intelligence or AR functionalities.

Per the same report, it's still a toss between Intel Kaby Lake and AMD Ryzen CPUs as main engine for the iMac 2017 when unboxed. And if the latter will be Apple's choice of processor then the door will be opened for AMD RX Vega as the next iMac GPU muscle.

Rumors say Apple could introduce the next-gen iMac in time for the company's WWDC 2017 that will kick off on June 5 but the actual release date is not happening until September or October.