Here are your daily Apple news items and rumors for Monday:
All Hallows’ iPhone 5: So much for September. After months of rumors and reports suggesting Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) would deliver the next iteration of its ceaselessly popular smartphone during 2011’s ninth month, it now appears that the iPhone 5 will arrive in October instead. A story originating at Gizmodo had word from an unnamed AT&T (NYSE:T) employee claiming that employees at the telecom are not allowed to request vacation time at the end of September due to an “event blackout.” That event, according to All Things Digital, will in fact be the iPhone 5’s coming-out party ahead of an early October release. Apple still is expected to deliver the new iPhone in two separate Halloween costumes, though — both an upgraded high-end iPhone 5 and a smaller, cheaper iPhone model.
Big With Verizon: AT&T won’t be the only company gearing up for a rush of customer interest around the iPhone 5’s release in October. According to a Monday report at Apple Insider, Verizon (NYSE:VZ) should brace itself for a massive influx of new iPhone users at that time. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster polled a selection of Verizon customers and found that 74% of them have yet to upgrade to Apple’s device because they are waiting for the release of the new model. By comparison, 53% of AT&T users are waiting to upgrade to the iPhone 5. Munster predicts this anticipation among Verizon users could shake out to nearly 4 million iPhone sales for that telecom through the September quarter.
Samsung Tab Pushed Under Down Under: Apple’s ongoing spat with competitor and component supplier Samsung (PINK:SSNLF) escalated on Monday, according to a report in Bloomberg Businessweek. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has successfully blocked the release of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer from going on sale in Australia. That iPad competitor infringes on 10 Apple-held patents, Apple’s lawyers say. As of now, Australian Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett agrees. The tablet cannot go on sale in the country until Samsung comes to an agreement with Apple.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at @ajohnagnello and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.
