Now here’s an interesting thing that could possibly mean the iOS faithful may not get their eager mitts on the next generation iPhone until sometime in October rather than the much anticipated September release, albeit even that September release only being rumour.

According to the guys over at Gizmodo, a report by Phone Arena has it that Verizon is running a special promotion that offers a 100 buck trade in for those that upgrade from their dumbphone to a smartphone, something they say may hint at when we will likely see the iPhone 5 surface.

Apparently the Big Red promo will run from the 18th of this month until the 30th of September. And the Gizmodo guys suggest that if the iPhone 5 was releasing in September while this promo is running it would mean that although the Big Red will grab all those data plans they would e giving away numerous $100 to possibly thousands who may have opted to pick up the iPhone 5 anyway.

Thus they speculate that Verizon wouldn’t let this happen and the top people at Verizon would by now know the expected release date of the next iOS smartphone so they can be prepared. Thus if Verizon is indeed running this promo then chances are the iPhone 5 wont surface until sometime after the promo ends, which of course would mean sometime in October.

Sounds fairly reasonable to me, I can’t see the Big Red giving away cash right on the expected launch of the iPhone 5, and if the device is to release in September and Verizon should know, then surely they would have waited until after its launch.

Of course there have been no guarantees from anyone that the iPhone 5 would release in September anyway as everything is based on unconfirmed rumour, and some rumours have already insinuated that the iPhone 5 wouldn’t come out to play until October.

So what do our readers think, does Verizon running this new promotion signify that the iPhone 5 won’t be releasing until after the promo has ended?