The iPhone 5 seems set to ship in October, with the UK release staggered to follow that in the US by one week, reports claim.
Various reports as repeated by Computerworld cite numerous sources pointing to an October release for the much-anticipated new Apple smartphone. Most recently, the head of Orange told a French business news show he'd "heard" release was scheduled for October 15, but warned this could be incorrect. A second report cites an O2 customer service rep who anticipates an October 21 release for the device in the UK.
Apple is hard at work applying the final flourishes to its new mobile OS, iOS 5. This is expected to hit Gold Master status later this month, when it will be distributed for testing by Apple's appointed iPhone carriers, who will test it on their networks before giving the go ahead to launch the software, which should hit the Internet approximately one week before the iPhone 5 launch.
Demand for the new phone is described as extremely high, with 31 percent of consumers surveyed by RBC planning to get the new model. iPhone 5 is also expected to go on sale on the world's biggest carrier network, China Telecom, which is expected to sell one million units of the new device before the end of the year.
The next version of the iPhone is expected to host an 8-megapixel camera, 512MB RAM and to be significantly faster and better-performing than the current model, though it is not expected this device will support the LTE 4G standard.