Guardian is reporting that carriers have received iPhone 5 boxes for field testing indicating the launch is coming soon. Charles Arthur wrote on Guardian:

My carrier sources tell me that the boxes in which the new iPhone hardware is encased have been transported to carriers for testing. This is an important step in the release cycle for any phone. The next iPhones go for their testing inside locked and sealed boxes so that the carriers can carry out checks on their network compatibility in their labs. It's very high security, as you could guess; my understanding is that barely anyone inside the carriers gets to open those boxes, and even when they do the hardware is encased in a dummy body which means there's no clue to what the actual phone will do.

Also, BGR is reporting that the Canadian carrier Telus is planning an October 1 iPhone 5 launch. Jonathan Geller posted on BGR:

According to confirmed information we have received from a reliable source at Canadian carrier Telus, Apple’s iPhone 5 looks to be touching down on October 1st in Canada. We have seen an internal Telus document that lists October 1st as the launch date, and while the first could just be a place holder, we do not believe that is the case in this instance. The document lists additional launch dates that are not placeholders — several of the listed dates line up with what we’re hearing from other trusted sources.

Apple normally launches new iPhone models in Canada few weeks after its launched in US (except for iPhone 3GS). This would indicate that iPhone 5 will be launched in US in September and few weeks later come to Canada on October 1st.

In addition to the above iPhone 5 news, Digitimes is reporting that Pegatron has received orders for 10 million units of iPhone 5 from Apple. Pegatron manufactures CDMA version of iPhone 4 and was rumored to be the main contender for iPhone 5 manufacturing.

On the iPad 3 side, rumors are that Apple will launch the iPad 3 at the iPad 2’s current price points, according to Taiwan Economic News. And will discount iPad 2 in order to clear inventory. The website adds that iPad 3 will be launched by this Thanksgiving or early next year.

Our sources say that iPad 3 and iPad 2 will coexist with iPad 2 being the lower end model and iPad 3 the Pro level model. Apple might discount the iPad 2 prices, but they won’t completely remove it from the lineup. As for iPhone 5 launch date saga, like we wrote yesterday, our sources still maintain that iPhone 5 will be launched this summer and we should get more info this month.