Foxconn Human Resources Chief Claims October Launch for iPhone 5

Proving that Foxconn employees, even those associated with worker hiring, aren't necessarily privy to information on launch schedules for Apple products, Kotaku reports on an article from Maeil Business Newspaper offering new claims on an iPhone 5 launch date. The report notes that the newspaper contacted the chief of human resources at Foxconn's facility in Taiyuan, China to ask about hiring and iPhone plans, with the employee disclosing that the company has just received an order from Apple for the iPhone 5 ahead of an expected launch date of "around October".

According to a recently published article, the paper asked the head of human resources at Foxconn's Taiyuan factory about the iPhone 5 release date. The human resources head apparently told the paper, "We just got the order. It [the release] will be around October."

The report comes just after a Foxconn recruiter at the same plant claimed last week that a hiring surge of roughly 18,000 workers is supporting production of the iPhone 5 for a June launch.

As we noted in our earlier report, a September-October timeframe has seemed much more likely than a return to a mid-year launch, as Apple would likely prefer to maintain at least a one-year interval between product updates. Returning to a June-July launch for the next-generation iPhone would bring that interval down to only 8-9 months, a rather fast turnaround for the company that is still rolling out the iPhone 4S to new markets and carriers.