Sam Oliver
Citing a "proven source," Boy Genius Report said on Monday that AT&T has begun communicating with its employees that the company's retail stores are expected to see a great deal of foot traffic in September. Those workers have been asked to finish any employee training as soon as possible.
AT&T's moves are said to be related to an upcoming iPhone launch, with the handset expected to be announced in late August and go on sale in the first half of September. BGR has a respectable track record with regard to Apple's partnerships with wireless carriers, based on its sources in the wireless industry.
The report aligns with a separate recent scoop from MacRumors, which said that Apple is recruiting former employees to return part-time between Aug. 15 and Sept. 15. While the increase could be simply for back-to-school sales, it's also possible the dates could correspond with a new iPhone launch.
Apple's anticipated fifth-generation iPhone is expected to arrive this fall, alongside iOS 5, the next-generation version of the company's mobile operating system. During the company's quarterly earnings call last week, Apple executives revealed that they are planning a major product transition to occur by the end of September.
In years past, new iPhone launches have occurred in the June-July timeframe. But this year, Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference did not serve as an introduction to a new iPhone model.
Signs of a forthcoming iPhone launch have been growing, as Apple's suppliers are said to have been gearing up to manufacture a fifth-generation handset. While Monday's latest rumors suggest the device will launch in September, earlier rumors had pegged a new iPhone to debut as late as October.
Reports have suggested the new iPhone will be thinner and lighter than the current iPhone 4, and it will also sport an 8-megapixel camera. According to The Wall Street Journal, it will feature new wireless baseband chips from Qualcomm, and Apple reportedly hopes to build 25 million units by the end of 2011.
Claims that AT&T is privy to the launch date of the next iPhone come only days after the chief executive of rival carrier Verizon said his company had "assumed" that Apple would release a new iPhone early in the summer as it has done in years past. Lowell McAdam said last week that Apple's new iPhone will debut "a little bit later in the year now."
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27 Comments
will probably be LTE as well, qualcomm's LTE and everything in one radio chips are supposed to start shipping soon
will probably be LTE as well
Why?
1. Power draw.
2. Lack of LTE networks anywhere.
3. Size of chips.
I wouldn't think that the new iPhone would be released before iOS 5 & we all know that iOS 5 is coming this autumn (September 23 or later).
Also I have deep suspicions about the following line: <<Those workers have been asked to finish any employee training as soon as possible.>> What? We are still in late July, not the beginning of September, and wouldn't AT&T be in control of training their employees anyways? Something is not right about this rumor (as well as many other rumors).
Funny I was just about to comment on the recent lack of speculation surrounding the next gen iPhone. I suppose that could simply be attributable to the recent activity on the Mac OS X side of things with Lion and the Air and Mini refreshes. It would be really nice to see the rumor mill pick up with news of an Apple conference center reservation or something. At least that would give us a date to look forward to for some kind of announcement.
I wouldn't think that the new iPhone would be released before iOS 5 & we all know that iOS 5 is coming this autumn (September 23 or later).
Also I have deep suspicions about the following line: <<Those workers have been asked to finish any employee training as soon as possible.>> What? We are still in late July, not the beginning of September, and wouldn't AT&T be in control of training their employees anyways? Something is not right about this rumor (as well as many other rumors).
ATT is in charge of their employee training. I think this is referring to a directive within ATT from upstairs to their store managers to have employee training complete by date X. That part of the rumor is completely believable.
As to everyone expecting the launch in "autumn"... I know that an announcement was made about iOS5 not coming to a phone near you until fall, but me thinks this might just be a bit of a play by Apple. They have set the expectation of fall, and now people are looking at their calendars and thinking last week of September at the earliest. Apple could swing it out early September to lots of people being happy about the "early" release.
The only real good news is that we SHOULD know something more concrete in the next few weeks. Of course, this is also the bad news.