A new report suggests that iOS 6.1 GM build release will take place as early as next week. iOS 6.1 has been in beta stage for over a couple of months now. Whenever Apple releases a firmware update it first pushes out beta versions to registered developers. The iOS 6.1 GM build release will also be aimed at developers and not the public.

However when a GM build release does take place, it usually means that a public release is coming in the very near future. If this does happen next week, iOS 6.1 public release may very well take place by the end of this month.

The GM or Gold Master build of an upcoming software is usually exactly the same as the one that is to be publicly released. No features are not added at this stage. Even developers do manage to find some bugs in the GM build, they are quickly taken care of hence ensuring an almost bug free public version. This will be the fifth beta of iOS 6.1 that Apple will seed to developers and iFun has it on good authority that its most definitely going to be the GM build.

Many improvements are expected from this update and iOS 6.1 GM build release will provide us with a glimpse of what has been fixed. This upcoming update will deal with the horrendous Maps application which has proved to be a major headache for Apple. It will also bring much needed improvements to Siri. Apart from these improvements there will be the usual slew of performance and stability improvements. iCloud accounts will be more secured and the new Passbook app will also be improved.

A quick word of advice for jailbreakers, be advised that it may not be in your best interests to install iOS 6.1 when it is released to the public. While Planetbeing already has an untethered iOS 6.0.2 iPhone 5 jailbreak, the release is being held off for now in hopes of using the exploit on iOS 6.1. We'll only know for sure if that exploit has been patched with iOS 6.1 GM build release after it happens, until then stick to your current firmwares.