iPhone 5 production set to begin - Report

iPhone 5 production is reportedly set to begin soon, perhaps signaling a Summer release date for Apple's next-gen iPhone

Citing a reliable source, 9to5Mac reported a few days ago that iPhone 5 production is set to begin soon, perhaps signaling a Summer release date for Apple's next-gen iPhone.

The source in question dropped a few interesting nuggets of information:

• 4+ inch display (made by LG on at least one of them).
• No teardrop-shaped devices, as rumored in the lead up to the iPhone 4S. Samples so far have been symmetrical in thickness (also longer/wider).
• Neither of the sample devices have the iPhone 4/4S form factor.
• Neither of the devices are the final versions.

So a new form factor coupled with a larger display. So far so good - and while only Apple at this point truly knows what the iPhone 5 will feature, rumblings of a 4-inch screen iPhone have been showing up much more frequently these days.

Furthermore, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu wrote a few weeks ago that the iPhone 5 will support 4G LTE networks and will feature "a sleeker, thinner form factor, and a slightly larger screen.”

But throwing a dose of reality onto the rumor mill, John Gruber - who has a solid track record when it comes to discerning which Apple rumors have legs - wrote that iPhone 5 production is not, in fact, gearing up for production.

What's more, Gruber is skeptical that the iPhone 5 will be both longer and wider.

Longer and wider? ... I can see Apple putting a bigger display on a device of the same size. I can’t see them making a bigger device.

Which of course brings to mind all those old rumors of an iPhone 5 with an edge to edge screen.

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• iPhone 5