Today, two blogs Macotakara and iMore reported that Apple is targeting September or October for launch of next generation iPhone 5. Macotakara posted they have heard from reliable Asian source that next iPhone will be released in September or October, and Apple will follow this end of the year cycle for future iPhone releases.

On the other hand, iMore claimed that Apple will launch LTE based iPhone 5 in October, based on information they received from a very reliable source. After these rumors were published many other blogs also posted that they have heard similar rumors about iPhone 5 launch.

However, our very reliable source, who gave us information about original iPad pricing ($500 not $1000) and March launch date for iPad 2 (March not January) says that these rumors are wrong. According to him, iPhone 4S launch was delayed because of hardware and software integration of Siri, which was the most important features on iPhone 4S. If Apple had left Siri out they could have easily shipped iPhone 4S in May or June. So the October launch date was not something Apple planned, but they were forced to delay iPhone 4S launch because of Siri. One more thing that our source pointed out was that because iPhone 4S design was very similar to iPhone 4, Apple was able to quickly ramp up the production to meet holiday demand.

But as we all know by now the next generation iPhone 5 will be a completely new design and hence ramping up production for holidays after launching that late (say in October) will be very difficult. All the tech websites say that the reason behind the delayed iPhone 5 launch is the second generation LTE chip, a single chip solution that combines LTE, HSPA+, CDMA2000 and EV-DO. However, Qualcomm has already started sampling such a chip in Q1 and will start mass production in Q2 2012 (mostly in April). So there is no reason for Apple to wait six more months to get their hands on that chip.

Now what we have heard about iPhone 5, it will be launched in Q3 2012 (mostly in first half of Q3) with production ramping up to full capacity by Q4 2012 to meet holiday demand. We have also heard that Apple will use a 4-inch screen on iPhone 5 and it will be a 720p screen. It will not have the same resolution as current Retina display. Apple will really focus on display improvement with a brighter and more color accurate display offering larger color gamut. Like the iPad 3 display, the iPhone 5 display will be out of this world, according to our source.