Apple iPhone 5 Rumors: Release Date In September, Says German Carrier Mobilcom Debitel

"In September, it's finally time for a new generation of smartphone to go on sale," the carrier said on its site Tuesday. "Mobilcom-Debitel allows you to find free e-mail about everything worth knowing about iPhone."

The company is now featuring a page on their site with a red veil covering what appears to be an iPhone. Here is Mobilcom-Debitel, in broken English Google-translated from German:

"Is it the summer temperatures, or is it the heat from the rumor mill, which increases the fan fever?" Mobilcom-Debitel asks. "Is coming soon, in the late summer, a new smartphone, the world eagerly awaits all."

Hilariously bad translating aside, Mobilcom Debitel hints at some of the alleged features coming in the next iPhone:

"The new smartphone special surprises?" Mobilcom Debitel asks. "Perhaps a bigger screen of 4 inches or a thinner cell touchscreen? The world expects a faster processor or higher graphics performance? Maybe even a memory of 1 GB? It will be exciting..."

Mobilcom-Debitel says users can sign up on their site to "stay up to date" and be the first to know about news of Apple's "new smartphone," but we've all heard that one before.

iPhone 5: When Is The Release Date?

Germany's Mobilcom-Debitel isn't the first smartphone carrier to hint at the iPhone's release date. Back in July, Francis Shammo, the CFO of Verizon, mentioned "a new phone coming out in the fourth quarter" during his company's quarterly earnings conference call.

"We've made a lot of moves in the last year and a half around restructuring our upgrade policies. As you know, we've launched our $30 upgrade fee," Shammo explained during the call with investors and other Verizon executives. "Obviously, this all has an impact on the level of upgrades and then of course, there is always that rumor mill out there with a new phone coming out in the fourth quarter. And so people may be waiting, but look, we manage this on a quarter-to-quarter basis."

More recently, just last week, BGR reported from a "trusted AT&T" source that the carrier plans to launch the iPhone 5 in the third or fourth week in September. The source said AT&T's all-hands-on-deck policy will be in place for employees, which will extend through mid-October.

Furthermore, a second AT&T source independently confirmed to BGR that AT&T has rescheduled a large training event for regional employees has from the first week of October due to a "major announcement."

Beyond smartphone carriers, however, it's been widely reported that the iPhone 5's release date will come in the first two weeks of September. The very first report of an official unveiling date came on July 30 from iMore's deeply-connected editor-in-chief Rene Ritchie.

"iMore has learned that Apple is planning to debut the new iPhone at a special event on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, with the release date to follow 9 days later on Friday, September 21. This information comes from sources who have proven accurate in the past."

After Ritchie's initial report, The Verge, The Loop, Reuters, Bloomberg, the New York Times and CNN all confirmed the date.

We know a good deal of what the iPhone 5 looks like, thanks to prototypes and images allegedly leaked by Apple's foreign supply chains. In the iPhone 5, Apple has 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, smaller dock connector, which could be as small as 9 pins.

As far as interior features go, the iPhone 5 may be the first iPhone to support LTE connectivity, NFC technologies for sending money and sharing content, 3D photography, and multiplayer gaming. The phone may also be the first to feature crack-proof glass in its design, as well as a new haptics feedback system, which could produce 3D buttons or objects for users to physically interact with their content. More of the phone's features can be read about here.

The iPhone 5 models will likely sell at the same prices as the current iPhone line - not for $800 as rumored.