Apple's iPhone
Apple's iPhone REUTERS

Apple's iPhone 5 will come out on Oct. 15, a top French executive predicted on Thursday.

According to a TechCrunch report, Stéphane Richard, CEO of France Telecom, said: If we believe what we have been told, the iPhone 5 will be released on 15 October.

Numerous other rumors about the iPhone 5 launch also point to early or mid-October.

Ricard said in May that Apple was tinkering with the idea of a new, smaller SIM card standard.

Apple tightly controls information regarding product launches, a factor that fuels rumors in tech circles about possible launch dates of fancied products like iPhone and iPad.