Obviously at some point this year Apple will release the next generation iPhone, which is currently being referred to as the iPhone 5, and original rumours speculated that Apple would deliver the iPhone 5 in summer, whilst a recent rumour has it that iOS smartphone will arrive sometime in the fall, but whenever the iPhone 5 surfaces no doubt all of the iOS faithful will want the handset.

Well according to an article over on Insane Planet, the release of the iPhone 5 could cause upgrade concerns for some because as the currently iPhone 4S was released last year in October rather than in the summer, many will have only owned the smartphone for a few months.

AT&T customers have the right to upgrade if they purchased a device in the last 12 to 18 months whilst Verizon customers can upgrade their device after a year and eight months, so thus it is Verizon customers that could be affected the most.

However according to the guys, those that couldn’t upgrade their iPhone to the present iPhone 4S, the release of the iPhone 5 shouldn’t cause them any upgrade problems, whilst those that currently own the iPhone 4/4S should be prepared to part with roughly $200 to $250 when upgrading to the next generation iPhone.

Again according to the article, those customers that are tied into a 2-year contract won’t be able to upgrade to the iPhone 5 and will have to wait until Apple pushes out the iPhone 6 sometime next year.

However of course no matter what contract you are currently in, if you want out desperately enough you can opt to buy your way out, although in doing so it could cost you quite a packet to get out of your contact and then purchase the iPhone 5.

So the thing is, will you be dumping your current handset no matter what the cost is simply to be able to get the iPhone 5 once the device finally arrives, or will you just wait it out until your contract allows you to upgrade without incurring cost?