Rumor: iPhone 5 launching in October, not September

9to5 Staff | Aug 1 2011 - 4:06 am PT

iPhone 5 knockoff

John Packowski writes for The Wall Street Journal’s blog AllThingsD that, alas, iPhone 5 will be launching in October, not in September as the rumor mill has been buzzing over the past few weeks. This information apparently comes from an unnamed source close to Apple. The blog has been right about many things Apple in the past so it’s worth mentioning here:

So those rumors claiming the iPhone 5 will debut in late September? They’re wrong. Instead, it’s going to be an October surprise — the month in which Apple will be launching its next generation iPhone.

We received solid information last month that AT&T was making big changes to its insurance policy related to iPhones in the first week of October. Additionally, we broke the news that AT&T was introducing a new throttling policy as of October 1st as well. The writing appears to be on the wall. But AllThingsD think it will be a late October surprise:

So when can we expect the company to uncrate the iPhone 5? “October,” the source said, while declining to offer a hard-launch date. Other sources said it will be later in the month, rather than earlier.

Others have reported that AT&T has blacked out employee vacations in the September’s last two weeks, which is usually a sign of a major product launch which may or may not be related to a new phone from Apple. This unconfirmed piece of the puzzle was apparently provided to Gizmodo by an AT&T employee this past Friday who noted that “historically the only time they’ve done this was for an iPhone release”, adding that “we’re looking at the last two weeks of September”. BGR said that it was the first two weeks of September. Not so says AllThingsD:

“I don’t know why AT&T’s calling for all hands on deck those weeks, but it’s not for an iPhone launch,” a source familiar with Apple’s plans said.

The source who spoke to AllThingsD offered a similar story, saying “it will be later in the month rather than earlier”. This could still mean a September event to announce iPhone 5 with the shipping date set a month later. An October launch also jives with an iPhone Italia report citing “a very reliable” high-ranked executive of Switzerland’s carrier Swisscom, calling for a limited iPhone 5 availability in September in the United States and international roll out in October. At this point, too much conflicting information pertaining to the iPhone 5 launch is cropping up everywhere and while we have our share of doubts about some of them, the abundance of leaks is always a sign of a product launch from Apple. The latest case leaks point to a larger display on iPhone 5, curved back and a larger home button. We have also learned that the iPhone 3GS supply is tightening and that phone is apparently no longer available at UK’s Orange. 9to5Mac on its part speculated that Apple could be prepping two iPhones this Fall, one an iPhone 4 successor and the other a cheaper, possibly pre-paid model.