“There are several reports suggesting that Apple has begun final production of its next-generation iPhone already, but we have learned from a trusted source that this isn’t quite true,” Jonathan S. Geller reports for BGR.

“Apple goes through multiple stages before a product is manufactured, and two of these include the ‘engineering verification test’ stage and the ‘design verification test’ phase,” Geller reports. “Apple’s sixth-generation iPhone is currently in the EVT3 stage, the third revision of the engineering test stage, and has not yet entered the DVT stage.”

Geller reports, “Additionally, 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. We’re expecting Apple’s new iPhone to be released at the end of September or early October.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]