European operator: Apple may release iPhone 12 on October 13

According to whistleblowers, Apple may hold an iPhone 12 launch conference on October 13 and start accepting pre-orders on October 16.

The news comes from a whistleblower who claims to work for a wireless operator in the Netherlands. Although there is no solid evidence to confirm the specific date of the event, the person's IP address is indeed within the control of the operator's corporate network.

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Meanwhile, elsewhere in Europe, another operator is gearing up for an Apple launch and is similarly looking forward to a 5G phone. According to internal presentation documents from BT and EE, BT CEO Marc Allera announced that Apple is about to launch a 5G iPhone "within a few days."

“We are only days away from Apple’s next big launch, the 5G iPhone, which will be a huge boost for 5G,” Allera told employees. “Teams across the consumer division have been preparing for this launch all year and have become Apple’s partner of choice in Europe.”

During the presentation, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and services Eddy Cue also appeared in the video to congratulate EE on becoming the first operator to offer consumers a smartphone plan that bundles multiple Apple services. It is unclear whether Cue mentioned 5G, but given Apple's tradition of secrecy, this seems unlikely.

Although new iPhones are usually released in September, multiple reports have stated that Apple plans to release the iPhone 12 in October this year. This time frame was officially confirmed by Apple, which said in its quarterly earnings call in June that the launch of the new iPhone this year would be delayed by a few weeks.

Apple is expected to release four new iPhone 12 models this year, and may first launch the iPhone 12 Max or iPhone 12 mini at the launch event on the 13th. These two models are equipped with 5.4-inch and 6.7-inch OLED screens respectively. However, the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro and 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max may also make an appearance.

The iPhone 12 is rumored to have two 12-megapixel cameras, while the Pro models have three, with the latter also thought to have a LiDAR sensor for depth mapping, enabling enhanced AR and photography capabilities.

All iPhone 12 models are expected to support 5G, although how it will work remains unclear. While all models are likely to include support for sub-6GHz bands, there is speculation that only specific models will support high-speed millimeter wave.