“For months, we had been hearing rumors and reports that Apple plans to release a new iPhone and a new, smaller iPad model this fall,” Dave Smith reports for The International Business Times. “The exact release date had not yet been predicted until Monday, when iMore’s editor-in-chief Rene Ritchie became the first… ‘iMore has learned that Apple is planning to debut the new iPhone at a special event on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, with the release date to follow 9 days later on Friday, September 21. This information comes from sources who have proven accurate in the past. After Ritchie’s initial report, The Verge, The Loop, Reuters, Bloomberg, the New York Times and CNN all confirmed the date.”

“Ritchie also said that Apple would announce the iPad Mini at the same Sept. 12 event, but he said he did not have an exact release date. Ritchie said ‘it could be the same [date] as the iPhone 5,’” Smith writes. “It’s possible that Apple could release its two heavy-hitting products at the same time, but there are plenty of reasons to believe this dual-release will not happen.”

Smith writes, “If Apple plans to release a smaller, cheaper iPad to the masses at the same time as the iPhone 5, Apple could run into the biggest crowds in the history of the company. And that’s not necessarily a good thing… If Apple decided to launch the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini on the same date, it would be an absolute disaster, especially for customers. Lines are already out the door and around the building; if half of those people are there for iPhone and half for iPad Mini, and a handful of people are there to buy both products, there may not be a way to clearly organize the crowds, even if both products are ready to go at the same time. My guess is, Apple will release the iPhone 5 first to get that giant launch out of the way. Then, maybe a week later, Apple will release the iPad Mini along with all of the other products, including the 13″ Retina MacBook Pro and the new iPods.”

The full article includes speculation of Liquidmetal, Advanced Haptics, “iWallet,” and much more here.

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Apple to unveil next-gen iPhone on September 12 – July 30, 2012
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Apple ‘iPhone 5′ and ‘iPad mini’ event planned for September 12, iPhone 5 release on September 21, say sources – July 30, 2012
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