iPhone 5 Release and Update Feature

No other Apple based rumor has more vigor today than the supposed iPhone 5 release date. There is a generalized idea of when this iPhone 5 release date will be based on the previous release pattern. The original iPhone was released on June 28, 2007 to much acclaim and a summer shopping rush. The iPhone 3G was released the following year a little later on July 11, 2008. The subsequent iPhone 3Gs had an earlier June 8th release date in 2009, and the much anticipated iPhone 4 came out on June 24th of last year. From this we can deduce an approximate release between the later part of June and beginning weeks of July, and no matter what it should maintain the summer release pattern that it has established. More recently sources have begun to power the iPhone rumor mill, stating that the release could be delayed from its “assumed” release date.

Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference is leading June beginning on the 6th and running through the 10th. The iPhone rumor blogs immediately picked this up as the possible release date for the iPhone 5, which was already a very early assumption. WWDC and the new iPhone release have run congruent for three years solid, so it is a very educated guess.

The question began to come up when Apple began hinting that there would be an iOS preview at WWDC, which some people have supposed meaning that the iPhone 5 would not be the attraction. In general, the iOS 5 is supposed to be matched with the iPhone 5 release, but there is nothing set in stone to decide this. More than this, it is also going to complicate things now having a Verizon iPhone released less than six months before this assumed iPhone 5 release date and having its iOS running on a different update framework with the iOS 4.2.6 being given to Verizon users rather than the iOS 4.3.1. There is a promise given by Phil Schiller, an Apple VP, that there will be a White iPhone in Spring, but there is no telling whether or not this White iPhone is just a part of the iPhone 5 standard release.

What this all adds up to is a lack of information around the iPhone rumor community, mainly because of the splitting of the products. It seems strange that Schiller would indicate a White iPhone if it was part of the iPhone 5 release, but it would also seem strange to have the iPhone 5 pushed back significantly enough to have an iPhone 4 model release before it. Spring, which the June 6th date technically is, would be a little early for Apple, but there is no telling why they would create two large media spectacles in a two month period. Right now the June 6th date seems like the best option for both the iPhone 5 and iOS 5 release, so until there is something more concrete then this is where the rumors seem to point.