iPhone 5 Rumor Mill: Release Date Disputed, Definitely October (Maybe)

What are we going to do with our time when Apple's iPhone 5 is finally released?

The highly speculated about phone has been the source of a relentless amount of rumors over the past few months. The next generation iPhone is certain to drop in October according to various sources. The latest batch of speculation comes from The New York Times, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch and Boy Genius Report (Twice).

Where to begin?

The New York Times came out with a relatively tame report citing an Apple employee that said the phone is weeks away from being announced. The NYT article said the new phone will include an 8-megapixel camera, an A5 dual core processor and mobile payment functions. There's also the possibility that it will include the Qualcomm mobile phone chip.

All of these rumors have already been speculated by the tech community. The few weeks away remark is not definitive at all.

What is definitive is TechCrunch's comments from the chief executive officer of France Telecom Stéphane Richard. According to the TechCrunch report, Richard said if he is to believe what he has been told, the iPhone 5 will come out on Oct. 15.

This goes against the rumored release date of Oct. 7, which has been the subject of numerous reports. The most recent 9to5Mac report says they still think Oct. 7 will be the release date.

However, the 9to5Mac report comes with a caveat. Production of the iPhone 5 is seeing delays at least on one assembly line. As a result, the 9to5Mac report says the iPhone 5 may at the least be delayed slightly and could even see shortages all the way into 2012.

The Boy Genius Report article didn't add more clarification to the release date. It did add fuel to the rumor fire that Sprint will be adding the iPhone to its arsenal with the impending launch of the iPhone 5. According to that report, Sprint is not letting employees take any vacations from Sept. 30 through Oct. 15 because of the launch of the iPhone 5.

There was also another report recently from Boy Genius Report which indicated the iPhone 5 will have a radical new design. The report uses images of an alleged iPhone 5 case from the third-party accessory manufacturer Case-Mate.