iPhone 5 Release Date: Verizon CFO hints at Q4 Release and other features

Apple's next iPhone hasn't even been announced yet, but the firmly guarded secret handset is constantly the main talk of the tech gossip world through various rumors surfacing in the tech media world without a day miss.

The latest report comes from CNET, the guys over there have mentioned in a report, that Verizon CFO Fran Shammo expects Apple iPhone 5 to be out in fourth quarter of 2012. The hint by Verizon CFO was made during the company's quarterly conference call. According to the report, the official also made a reference that Verizon carrier will launch the most anticipated iPhone 5 as soon as it is released by Apple. Thus, iPhone 5 Verizon release date will be in fourth quarter, most probably in October.

Verizon CFO has a good catch up of iPhone 5 rumors and expects that the new smartphone will have an entirely new design, a bigger display, and capability for faster 4G LTE network. He made it clear that iPhone 5 release date by Verizon will be soon after the launch by Apple. According to him, a fourth-quarter iPhone 5 release date suggests that Apple may move in October, similar to its release date of the iPhone 4S last year.

At the same time, Verizon CFO is satisfied about iPhone which continues to be the biggest smartphone seller at the major carriers like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.

The iPhone continues to be the biggest smartphone seller at the carriers, often topping the bestseller list. Verizon CFO said in the report, that the company sold 2.7 million iPhones in the period. While the iPhone sales are primarily made up of iPhone 4S and, to a lesser extent, the discounted iPhone 4, several phones use the Droid name, including Motorola's Droid Razr and Droid Razr Maxx, and HTC's Droid Incredible. Verizon sold 2.9 million Droid phones, Shammo said in the report. In total, it sold 5.9 million smartphones.

Adding on more to the rumor pool, BGR has also come with the latest news that the next iPhone will feature a Nano-SIM. According to BGR sources, Apple is already supplying US carriers with Nano-SIM adapters for testing and apparently AT&T is set to introduce the new iPhone later this year with the new SIM standard.

The report states, "It's been rumored that the new iPhone will feature an even smaller SIM card than what's used now, and we can confirm that the new iPhone will feature these tiny SIM cards called nano-SIMs. Multiple carrier sources have exclusively told BGR that Apple is supplying nano-SIM adapters so its carrier partners can test how nano-SIMs work on their networks in standard test devices before they are widely deployed when the new iPhone is introduced." The report mentions that AT&T is one of the carriers that are testing these new SIM cards.

Further, BGR report has also confirmed that the next iPhone will come equipped with 1GB of RAM, NFC as well as 4G LTE connectivity. "We have confirmation that the units Apple is currently testing have 1GB of RAM, doubled from the iPhone 4S's 512MB, and integrated 4G LTE radios. We can also confirm that NFC hardware is present in the phones as well," said the report.

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