There’s two dates we keep hearing as affiliated with the launch of the next iPhone: September 12th and September 21st. September 12th is looking like the date Apple has scheduled to make the big announcement and the 21st is the likely release date in most of the top countries around the world. Now iMore is reporting that in addition to just announcing the iPhone on September 12th, Apple will make pre-orders available on that same date immediately after the unveiling.
If this is true, Apple is working harder than ever before to take the millions of orders and get shipments out as soon as possible. Last year, the iPhone 4S was announced on October 4th, but pre-orders didn’t start until three days later on the 7th.
iMore also scored information about the following wave of iPhone shipments. Typically, the first batch of iPhones are made available in the United States and some other larger markets and then a few weeks later the new iPhone models expand out to many more countries around the globe. That second wave will hit those markets in the first week of October, probably October 5th, according to the report.
The 12th and 21st have been thrown around so much now that it’s hard to bet against those dates for the iPhone launch.
Also, just as a side note with the iPhone rumors about to reach a fever pitch, it’s probably best to refrain from calling it the “iPhone 5.” I suspect that since Apple dubbed the third-generation iPad simply “the new iPad,” the sixth-generation iPhone will follow that same format.