AT&T Block on Employee Vacations for June Hints at iPhone Launch

[MacRumors]

Boy Genius Report claims that AT&T has instituted a block on all employee vacations for the month of June, signaling a possible iPhone release sometime during the month. In the past, such policies have been reliable indicators of iPhone launches.

Same story as last year and the year before, but we've confirmed with multiple AT&T sources that the carrier has now put a block on employees taking vacations in June. The only time AT&T does a straight block like this is for iPhone launches.

Apple has typically launched its new iPhone models in June of each year, although the iPhone 3G did not launch until July 11th, 2008, just inside the window predicted by AT&T's vacation block that year.

For the past two iPhone releases, Apple has introduced the new iPhone hardware at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco and launched sales of the new models 32 days (3G in 2008) and 11 days (3GS in 2009) later. Despite the fact that Apple has yet to announce dates for this year's WWDC, a number of hints and rumors have pointed to a late June timeframe for the event. Such scheduling would make for a short interval between the next-generation iPhone's presumed introduction at WWDC and its launch by the end of the month.

Article Link: AT&T Block on Employee Vacations for June Hints at iPhone Launch

 

[amac4me]

This happened in years past as well.

 

[harodude]

Can't Wait!

Even if it did come out on Verizon, I would stick with AT&T because the current 3G bandwidth is insane!

 

[griz]

Who cares!? Bring on the Verizon vacation block!

 

[noservice2001]

5mp cam?

 

[depulse]

I need to start packing so I can camp outside the Apple store....


Not!

 

[NebulaClash]

Who cares!? Bring on the Verizon vacation block!

Any Verizon vacation block would involve making their employees taking the stock Verizon iPhones out of their boxes, erasing iTunes, adding Vcast, and putting them back in the boxes.

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

Who cares!? Bring on the Verizon vacation block!

Please please... go ahead and flock to Verizon! Enjoy the limitations of EV-DO. I will enjoy the improvement of the AT&T network, when half of the iPhone users jump networks.

 

[Peace]

When is Apple gonna announce WWDC ? I originally thought it was gonna be June 21st but now I see Moscone has a convention that ends June 20th. Not enough time for Apple to set up stuff.

Maybe June 28th ?

 

[stagi]

Not many rumors buzzing around on new features or design so far? I am sure they will update the phones again but wonder if it will be a small change like the 3Gs?

 

[ValSalva]

Supposedly WWDC is at the very end of June and into July. If AT&T are truly blocking off vacation during June then one would suspect the announcement would come before WWDC. I wonder about the veracity of this rumor.

 

[alexhasfun28]

See! I told you so, I told you so! Verizon isn't getting no iPhone any time soon. Let alone, they're still dying for it, what losers! It'd be a bad idea for them to carry it anyways. Bandwith would be to heavy, 3G will be slower than what it is now, and they'll make Apple look ugly! In my opinion.

 

[ChazUK]

Any Verizon employee's being told they can't take June off? May hint to something.

 

[Pachang]

God I hope that WWDC is more than just a new iPhone and iPods.
>.>

 

[Trojita]

Please please... go ahead and flock to Verizon! Enjoy the limitations of EV-DO. I will enjoy the improvement of the AT&T network, when half of the iPhone users jump networks.

Enjoy it when AT&T can't afford to pay for their Cell Towers after everyone jumps ship.

I feel bad for any employee that was planning on going on vacation though.

 

[AppleInLVX]

128 GIG iPod Touch, please. My 1st gen one is getting long in the teeth and low on space.

 

[Roessnakhan]

Any Verizon vacation block would involve making their employees taking the stock Verizon iPhones out of their boxes, erasing iTunes, adding Vcast, and putting them back in the boxes.

Smartphones are pretty much untouched on Verizon, but nice try.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

Apple should abandon AT&T and only offer the new iPhone with a different carrier.

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

God I hope that WWDC is more than just a new iPhone and iPods.
>.>

Last year focused on iPhone OS 3.0, Snow Leopard and iPhone 3GS.

OSX isn't getting update this year... so we got iPhone OS4, and iPhone (HD)... and what else???

 

[Rychy]

I just think it's awesome where some of these tips come from... totally makes sense. And yeah I know this happened in the past years.

 

[kernkraft]

Poor guys cannot go on holiday in June and almost everybody voted positive?! That's just mean!

 

[VenusianSky]

I can't wait to upgrade my 3G. It is on its last leg (well not really). Vibrate button malfunctions, pretty much unusable, and it is close to being completely out of space. Give me 64GB!

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

Enjoy it when AT&T can't afford to pay for their Cell Towers after everyone jumps ship.

I feel bad for any employee that was planning on going on vacation though.

That is a bit ridiculous. AT&T has plenty of non-iPhone customers. You go ahead and enjoy being in the middle of an MMS, then the data transfer has to stop because you get a call... that is if you get the call... because I have seen EV-DO phones choose data over voice at times... so then, when your iPhone is polling the server for e-mail, your calls could go straight to voicemail instead. Push notifications are data too. Enjoy missing that outbid notice from the Ebay app because grandma decided to call you at that moment.

 

[GeekLawyer]

Poor guys cannot go on holiday in June and almost everybody voted positive?! That's just mean!

They have 11 other months to choose from. I don't think we've checked our humanity at the MacRumors door.

 

[Art Mark]

Yes...YES, yes...

I'm still with the original iPhone and I am very much ready to part with some dollars for the new hardware. Very excited. But the iPad is at least keeping me busy in the meantime.

I can't wait to upgrade my 3G. It is on its last leg (well not really). Vibrate button malfunctions, pretty much unusable, and it is close to being completely out of space. Give me 64GB!