Apple May Announce iPhone 5 Event On Tuesday, Sept. 4 [RUMORS]

If Apple's history can predict its future, we might expect the Cupertino, Calif.-based company to release invitations to its media event, allegedly scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 12, eight days prior on Tuesday, Sept. 4.

This reported date is not based on fact, or word from any source from within Apple; this is rather based on Apple's past when it comes to releasing its media event invitations.

Last year, Apple issued invitations for its "Let's Talk iPhone Event," scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 4, seven days earlier on Tuesday, Sept. 27.

For its most recent product unveiling (not including WWDC), Apple issued invitations to its new iPad event on Tuesday Feb. 28, which was eight days prior to the new tablet's unveiling on Wednesday, March 7.

This year, Apple's iPhone 5 alleged event date (Wednesday, Sept. 12) been reported by several outlets - first iMore, then the Verge, Reuters, Bloomberg, the New York Times, The Loop and CNN - and those reports also believe Apple will begin selling the phone nine days later on Friday, Sept. 21.

If this heavily-reported unveiling date is accurate, then we can expect Apple to release its invitations to the iPhone event seven or eight days earlier on Sept. 4 or 5.

Given that Apple would be announcing the iPhone shortly after Labor Day, it makes most sense to announce the news on that Tuesday, immediately after the long holiday weekend. Teasing a new iPhone right after Labor Day should give plenty of professionals and students something to be excited about as they all return to work that day. This is the day Apple would make people the happiest, and it would also be most effective at building hype for the next eight days until the veil is finally lifted on the new phone.

What Will Apple Unveil At The Event?

Apple's policy is to "never confirm or comment on rumors or speculation," and while we don't truly know what Apple may unveil at this alleged Sept. 12 event, we have a pretty good idea based on the levels of production in Apple's supply chains, as well as reports and leaks from those same manufacturers.

Even though the event will likely be all about the iPhone 5, the phone isn't the only device said to be unveiled that day; reports are saying Apple has plans to introduce a new iPod Nano, a new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, and a brand-new "mini" iPad, which is expected to be unveiled in September but released in October, quite possibly on Oct. 5 -- the one year anniversary of Steve Jobs' death.

Here's a brief summary of what you can expect to see from each new device:

iPhone 5: Thanks to batches of images released by insiders within Apple's supply chains and repair shops, we generally know what the iPhone 5 looks like. We expect the iPhone to feature a bigger, thinner front plate that stretches the screen just beyond four inches to achieve a 16:9 resolution ratio to watch 1080p HD videos in a widescreen format.

According to alleged prototypes and images, Apple has also reportedly expanded and redesigned its speaker grills, migrated the FaceTime camera to be directly above the earpiece, moved the earphone jack from the top right corner of the phone to the bottom left corner, and introduced a new camera opening on the backside of the phone between the camera lens and the LED flash, which likely houses a small microphone. Finally, we believe Apple has fixed its iPhone 5 with a unibody metal back instead of an all-glass facade, which could potentially improve call reception, and has also endowed the iPhone with a new quad-core A6 processor, and that heavily-rumored smaller dock connector.

For more information about the iPhone 5's alleged features, such as NFC, LTE and even 3D, check out this article.

iPad Mini: On July 10, a photo set of the alleged iPad Mini suggested the mini tablet would be much wider and a little taller than the Nexus 7, Google's recently introduced 7-inch tablet, and it would be slightly thinner than Apple's third-generation "new" iPad. Gotta Be Mobile believes the iPad Mini will measure about 213.36mm tall and 143.67mm wide, which is "approximately two-thirds of the size of the new third-generation iPad." (The new iPad is 185.67mm wide, 241.3mm tall, and 9.39mm thick.)

The iPad Mini will almost definitely feature a Retina Display, front and rear cameras (iSight and FaceTime), and a smaller dock connector (like the iPhone 5). Read here for more information about the iPad Mini's alleged features.

13-inch Retina MacBook Pro: Before Apple shocked the WWDC audience with a completely-redesigned MacBook Pro with Retina Display, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted Apple would unveil such a notebook, and he even correctly forecast most of the features, including a lighter and slimmer form factor than the current MacBook Pros, the lack of a disc drive, and the Retina Display. After the event took place, Kuo followed up on his earlier report bysharing a new note with AppleInsider, in which he described how Apple will follow up the 15-inch model with a smaller, 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, to be released in early October.

Kuo had actually mentioned the 13-inch model in his initial report, adding that the basic computer would sell at $1,199. Apple starts selling the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Displayat $2,199.

New iPod Touch: On Aug. 25,GizChina posted new photos of what it claimed to be a next-generation iPodTouch, which featured a less tapered design and a wider rear camera whole, which suggests Apple may have added an LED flash to the back of the iPod to be like the iPhone.

As you can see from the photos these cases suggest that the next generation iPod touch will have a new design (at least to the rear) and seem to be have a much less pronounced taper to the edges when compared to the current iPod touch 4. The hole around the camera area to the left for example looks to have been elongated and tapered to fit around a possible LED flash to help with low light photography, and there is also the appearance of a new 'mystery hole' in the lower left hand side of the case.

The report goes on to speculate the "mystery hole" is a speaker or microphone of some kind.

Your Thoughts

Are you looking forward to Apple's next event? Keep your eyes peeled for Apple invitations on Tuesday, Sept. 4, and leave us your thoughts on the phone and the event in general in the comments section below.