iPhone 5 rumor roundup for week ending May 6

Apple's next iPhone said to be coming this fall, maybe in two models, and probably supporting over-the-air updates

Here are the top iPhone 5 rumors for the week ending Friday, May 6: The Date, the value of carrier employees as sources of information, two models, shallow consumers buy the white iPhone 4 and delay iPhone 5, wireless updates. You heard it all here second.

The Date: AT&T will get iPhone 5 first, in the fall; Verizon will get it "a few months later" in Q1 2012. We know this how? Because Robert Holland, founder of Social Media SEO, was talking to a Verizon retail store salesperson who told Holland that he, the salesperson, had heard [drum roll please] a rumor. "He said that Apple is always VERY tight lipped about any and all of their products, but that from his information so far, this is the schedule Verizon is expecting," Holland wrote.

Carrier employees were a popular source of date rumors this week. Brighthand learned that an AT&T customer service rep had told an AT&T subscriber that the "next-generation iPhone won't be out in early summer."

Network World - Here are the top iPhone 5 rumors for the week ending Friday, May 6: The Date, the value of carrier employees as sources of information, two models, shallow consumers buy the white iPhone 4 and delay iPhone 5, wireless updates. You heard it all here second.

The Date: AT&T will get iPhone 5 first, in the fall; Verizon will get it "a few months later" in Q1 2012. We know this how? Because Robert Holland, founder of Social Media SEO, was talking to a Verizon retail store salesperson who told Holland that he, the salesperson, had heard [drum roll please] a rumor. "He said that Apple is always VERY tight lipped about any and all of their products, but that from his information so far, this is the schedule Verizon is expecting," Holland wrote.

Carrier employees were a popular source of date rumors this week. Brighthand learned that an AT&T customer service rep had told an AT&T subscriber that the "next-generation iPhone won't be out in early summer."

APPLE IPHONEYS: The iPhone 5 edition

In all seriousness, the story notes, "This fits in with a number of earlier reports that indicate Apple has delayed the release [of] its next smartphone."

Here's what happened: "The subscriber asked the AT&T rep about when he would qualify for a subsidized upgrade to Apple's next smartphone, and was told: 'Apple has informed us that they do not plan to release the iPhone in the June to July timeframe, though there will be a newer version in the future. Unfortunately, we have not been given a release time for the new phone. We will release this information on our website when it is available to us.'"

Apple is trying to "bury" the iPhone 5, and distract the buying public with the white iPhone, according to Beatweek Magazine: "iPhone 5 burial complete as white iPhone 4 now ships in 24 hours."

"Speak not of the iPhone 5, as Apple has not only killed any chance of a prompt summer release, it's attempting to all but bury the product for now by instead distracting the public with a shiny new white iPhone 4," according to Beatweek. "... the uber-late arrival of the white iPhone 4 has breathed new life into the iPhone 4 lineup in the most shallow of ways -- but also in a surprisingly effective manner.

"[N]early every white iPhone 4 sale now will translate to one less iPhone 5 sale when the next generation first arrives," Beatweek observes. "Few [buyers] will eat the cost of not only buying two new iPhones within the span of less than half a year, but also plunking down $250 above sticker price to get the latter of the two, as buying a white iPhone 4 from either Verizon or AT&T will plunge you into unsubsidized territory when the iPhone 5 arrives. But for its part, Apple apparently doesn't care."

Two iPhone 5 models: "There is reason to believe," according to the iPhoneDownloadBlog, that Apple is building not one but two iPhone 5 models: a regular one, and a better-than-regular one.

"According to an employee of an Apple part supplier, there is reason to believe that the iPhone 5 will actually be two devices: a 'standard' and 'pro' model," the blog claims. "Due to the extensive amount of NDAs our source had to sign to work with Apple, he could not give us very many details."