Rumors have been circling around that Apple will announce their new iPhone 5 on Sept. 12 at a special debut event. The official release date is said to be Sept. 21.
Rumors recently spread that pre-orders for the highly anticipated phone will start on the same day, Sept. 12.
Phone rivals Nokia and Samsung look like they are launching their events around the same time in September.
According to The Var Guy, Microsoft and Nokia are holding a preemptive Windows Phone 8 launch event Sept. 5 in New York.
The Nokia World conference is set for Sept. 5-6 in Finland, while Samsung and HTC each appear to be prepping Windows Phone 8 devices for launch, perhaps as soon as September.
Apple has not confirmed the iPhone 5 launch, but all these smartphone launching events to seem to point that Apple will soon launch theirs as well.
According to Today Online, Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop said earlier Wednesday the company would unveil soon a new smartphone using Microsoft's latest smartphone software.
Nokia has been fighting for survival after ceding vast ground to Apple and Samsung in recent years, according to Today Online. Last year it abandoned its own mobile operating system, Symbian, and forged a software alliance with Microsoft, which had also been caught on its heels by the smartphone fall behind in smartphone boom. Their first collaboration, the Lumia 800, was well-reviewed but sales have been modest.
"In today's war ... (Between) Android, Apple and Windows, we are very clear, we are fighting that with the Windows Phone," Elop told reporters.
Apple's moves has been showing that the new iPhone 5 is coming out soon.
According to Mac Rumors, Apple has given their retail stores authorization to match discounted prices from approved major retailers and carriers. Apple will discount iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 by $49.01 up request to bring pricing down to $349.99/$249.99/$149.99 for the iPhone 4S and $49.99 for the iPhone 4.
These retailers include Target, Best Buy, and Sprint, according to the Wall Street Journal.
These discounts come as Apple is believed to be readying the iPhone 5 for the September release.
The phone is also rumored that it will have 4G LTE.
According to CNET, pple has been negotiating with two Korean mobile carriers to provide the iPhone 5 through their LTE networks, says the Korea Times. Officials from both SK Telecom and KT, who asked not to be identified, reportedly revealed the information.
"KT is in negotiation with Apple to persuade the latter to support KT's 1.8-gigahertz frequency in Korea for the upcoming iPhone,'' one senior KT executive said, according to Korea Times.
However, supporting 4G LTE technology is trickier than supporting 3G because different LTE networks around the world use their own unique frequencies.
Reports say that the new iPhone 5 will have a bigger display, be thinner and lighter. It was also said that it will feature a 19-pin mini connector and it will be equipped with a new technology called in-cell. This new in-cell technology integrates touch sensors into the LCD, making it unnecessary to have a separate touch-screen layer. This creates a thinner screen and improves the quality of displayed images. It will also feature tiny SIM cards called nano-SIMS, along with i0S 6.