Apple Sending iOS 5 to iPhone Assemblers at End of September

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports that Apple plans to send the golden master version of iOS 5 to its iPhone and iPod touch assembling partners during the period of September 23rd through 30th. So the new hardware could be launched around mid-October. That means that the assemblers will have time to install software on already produced new iPhones. But the analyst claims that design of the iPhone 5 would not be changed and Apple planes to ship 30 million units through the end of the year alongside production of an additional 5 million units of the existing iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS models

While many have been holding out for a significantly redesigned iPhone 5 offering a thinner, tapered profile as shown in third-party cases supposedly based on leaked design documents, essentially no evidence for such a model has surfaced in the form of parts leaks or other details. While some have suggested that the N94 is a decoy/scrapped/backup model and that Apple is keeping the redesigned model under tighter wraps, Kuo is not seeing signs of such a model anywhere in Apple's supply chain.