Edible Apple

Despite what critics were quick to call a “modest upgrade”, the iPhone 4S burst out of the gate this past October and quickly became Apple’s most popular iPhone ever. But as with all things Apple, the focus isn’t on what they’ve done, but tends to fall on what they’re going to do.

That said, and pushing aside rumors of an Apple HDTV for a second, Apple’s next big product launch will likely be the iPhone 5, though depending on who you ask, it may simply be called “The new iPhone” a’la the recently released iPad.

Last week,  a TV film crew interviewed a Foxconn recruiter who said that the upcoming iPhone would be released in June. While Apple has historically used the Summer months to launch its new iPhone, delays forced Apple to launch the iPhone 4S a few months later, in the Fall.

This of course sets up the question – will Apple’s next-gen iPhone be released in the Summer or in the Fall?

Addressing the issue, the Maeil Business Newspaper, based out of South Korea, recently published an article wherein they asked the head of human resources at one of Foxconn’s plants about the iPhone 5 release date, to which the HR honcho reportedly said, “We just got the order. It [the release] will be around October.”

Kotaku adds:

The original Japanese media’s report noticed that there were many Foxconn hiring notices throughout Taiyuan. The Foxconn factory that will apparently assemble the iPhone 5 is located there. The Maeil Business Newspaper reporter phoned the Foxconn factory in Taiyuan, and spoke to the H&R head. “Yes, it’s true we are hiring a large number of workers,” the human resources head told the paper.

Then, the reporter asked about the iPhone’s release date. As previously mentioned, the Foxconn employee said the company had just received the order, and the release date would be “around October.”

The paper followed up with Foxconn’s head of publicity. The paper, however, was told the PR head was “on vacation” and unavailable for comment.”

It’s hard to take any of this at face value, given that it is April, but reports of hiring ramping up have been making the rounds as of late.

But more importantly, it makes more business sense for Apple to give the iPhone 4S a full 12-month life cycle, thereby making October a good bet for the iPhone 5 launch.