iPhone 5 launch date: October 21 [Best Buy leak]

According to an apparent leak from a Best Buy employee to thisismynext, the retailer is going to install some Apple-related fixtures at 6am in the morning of October 21.

From there, it’s not a big leap to speculate that this corresponds to the upcoming iPhone 5 launch, although nothing says it explicitly.

Earlier rumors mentioned that the next iPhone would launch on October 9 in New Zealand, so take all of this with a grain of salt, but historically, Apple has launched new products in that timeframe.The month of October seems poised to be rich in cellphone news: since early August, Google is rumored to be unveiling Ice Cream Sandwich, its Android 3.x for smartphones. Microsoft is also expected to do a joint push for Windows Phone 7 with Nokia and other smartphone manufacturers.

Right now, no-one knows for sure what the next iPhone will look like, but it’s going to have a dual-core Apple A5 processor, and everything suggests that it will be larger, and slightly thinner than the iPhone 4. That could help accommodate an even larger battery and increase the comfort for touch screen gestures and typing. At the same time, Samsung just went “nuclear” in terms of size with a 5.3″ phone called the Samsung Galaxy Note.

Note: A previous version of this post mentioned Oct 5. This is a typo that I made, then subsequently corrected. Apologies.

Hubert Nguyen
Categories: Cellphones, Rumors
Tags: Apple Inc, iPhone, iPhone 5, Smartphones