An email from an apparent AT&T employee suggests that the iPhone 5 will be coming out in the final two weeks of September, Gizomodo is reporting.
Jesus Diaz, writing in Gizmodo, said a source reported to him via email that AT&T has cancelled employee vacations for “an event blackout” in late September.
Here’s the memo:
From: ************
Date: Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 12:27 PM
Subject: Iphone 5 release time
To: Tips@gizmodo.com
I’m an att employee and my boss just announced that vacation requests for the end of september will be denied due to an “event blackout”. Historically the only time they’ve done this was for an iphone release. So we’re looking at the last two weeks of september.
-********
Diaz said new iPhones from Apple have only been released during such blackouts in the past.
“This coincides with previous rumors, so it makes sense. But, like always, take rumors with a spoon of Maldon salt. Actually, it’s about Apple, so take a pint,” he wrote.
Electronista is buying it: “Both AT&T and Apple alike are known to use vacation blackouts to make sure they have full staff and have rarely had extended periods of the sort when they weren’t connected with iPhone launches. The coordination often includes a buffer zone, both to address sustained high traffic as well as to allow for some flexibility in the release date.”
Room for doubt?
But Electronista said there is some “room for doubt” given earlier talk of AT&T preparing for mid-August until October, but may be factoring in time for training and experience.
PhoneArena.com suggested the mid-part of September might be the launch date.”There are some new indications about a mid September launch of the Apple iPhone 5 at AT&T. A source who works for the carrier says that employees were told to expect ‘increased foot traffic’ in the AT&T stores starting in the middle of the month. Another report indicates that a launch in the middle of September will feature an initial shipment of 4 million units of the new iPhone. And during Apple’s latest quarterly report, the company said to expect a ‘future product transition’ in September.”
Verizon’s role?
What about Verizon Wireless and their iPhone 5? The phone should release at the same time.
PhoneArena said about VZ: “As far as speculation from the Verizon side of the aisle, we recently reported that a tipster of ours told us that Big Red has been offering bundled discounts on Apple iPhone 4 accessories and will soon discount single accessories in an attempt to clean out inventory before the launch of the new model.”
Get ready for lines of crazed iPhone fans ready to buy the next generation.
