A new iPhone 5 silicone case seems to have been extracted, which points at a thinner and tapered iPhone 5 release. While there is no official word from Apple as yet on the status of next generation iPhone, we merely rely on scuttlebutt that comes through our doors.
It was expected that Apple would announce the iPhone 5 back at WWDC 2011 earlier last month. However WWDC 2011 has totally a software affair where Apple only talked about Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5 and iCloud. There wasn't even a whisper or a slight jab about the iPhone 5. It seemed uncanny as Apple has always announced an iPhone in June.
Regardless of that, 9to5mac claims that they have received this purported iPhone 5 case from a source similar to one that was previously able to send them nearly accurate schematics of the iPad 2, before it was released. They also claim that Asian case manufacturers have started shipping case designs around the world for manufacturers for their own branding.
The source seems to be pretty confident that these iPhone 5 cases are the real deal. We have been hearing from different sources, some of our own even, that the next generation iPhone is going to be radically thinner and lighter. Consider it Apple's obsession to retain the iPhone's crown as the thinnest smartphone on the plant. That's what they said with the iPhone 4. We've heard of a thinner iPhone 5 and reports also indicate that the next generation iPhone is going to be considerably light. Now these cases do hint at those factors. They seem to be manufactured for a thinner iPhone.
Other scuttlebutt regarding the iPhone 5 includes a 12.6 megapixel camera, a bigger possibly 4-inch screen, two iPhone models and the removal of the iconic Home button. Though all of that seems highly unlikely, the fact that SO many sources are talking about a thinner and lighter iPhone, makes it only hard to not believe in them.
A report also claims that U.S. iPhone 5 release is on September 5, whereas globally the next generation iPhone is going to be launched on October 5. We've independently heard that the September music event is being pushed back so that the company releases the iPhone 5 first. What we know for sure is that within a month from now, a lot more about the next generation iPhone will be known to us, than we currently don't know about.