AT&T Vacation Blackouts Foreshadow Sept. iPhone Launch

More possible confirmation on iPhone 4S / 5 (or both) release in the September / October timeframe is coming via vacation blackouts, something that Apple, AT&T and Verizon have done in the past when prior iPhones have released.

One example from earlier this year was the Verizon iPhone launch, before which Apple and Verizon were reported to be instituting a vacation blackout. The new report cites an email claiming to be from an AT&T employee which states:

"I'm an att employee and my boss just announced that vacation requests for the end of september will be denied due to an "event blackout". Historically the only time they've done this was for an iphone release. So we're looking at the last two weeks of september."

Naturally, all this has to be taken with a grain of salt. The timeframe, however, does coincide well with other reports and rumors. The rumors have been pointing to a September or October launch of the iPhone 4S or 5 around then.

It's still unclear if Apple will release a minimally changed iPhone 4S (much like the iPhone 3G to 3GS upgrade), an iPhone 5 with the "normal" year-over-year changes, or even both. It's also been rumored that Apple may continue to sell the iPhone 3GS, for free on contract.

As usual, the number of rumors increases to staggering proportions as an iPhone release nears, so we can be reassured by the near-daily deluge of info that it's coming soon. That's about the only thing we can be sure of.
Tags:  Apple, iPhone, ATT, Verizon