Well, this is an interesting bit of news. It seems a recruiter for Foxconn, the company that manufactures most of Apple’s products, has said in an interview that the iPhone 5 (or “new iPhone,” as it will likely be called), will be coming out in June, not in September as previously thought.
Foxconn is in the midst of a major recruiting push. The company is trying to add 18,000 people to its already enormous workforce in order to meet manufacturing orders for the new iPhone, which may already be coming in. In an interview with Tokyo TV, a Foxconn recruiter repeated that the recruiting initiative is an effort to have a workforce that can meet demand for the next iPhone, which will be releasing in June. You can check out a video of the interview here, but it’s in Japanese. Japanese tech blog Macokatara has a rundown that you can read here (Google Translation).
So, is the next iPhone coming in June? The short answer is, probably not. Though iPhone releases have historically happened over the summer, last year’s iPhone 4S was delayed until October. Apple has historically been pretty careful about preserving a twelve month window between the releases of new products, and October to June is only nine months. Moreover, the iPhone is due for a fairly significant redesign. Historically those have come on even-numbered generations (the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 4), and the next iPhone is the sixth. Even ignoring the fact that a redesigned iPhone nine months after the last incremental update is a good way to anger your fan base, nine months probably isn’t enough time to get it ready. The same goes for iOS 6, which will certainly be releasing with the new iPhone.
All told, a September-October launch for the next iPhone is far more likely than Ju