September 12th is the likely date for Apple's announcement of the new iPhone

iMore is reporting that Apple plans to introduce its next iPhone, as well as an 8" iPad and updated iPod nano, at an event on September 12th. Bloomberg's sources confirm the date and that the next iPhone will be announced, but said nothing about other devices. iMore's sources say that the iPhone will go on sale in stores on Friday, September 21st; the website's sources haven't provided any specific information on release dates for other devices.

AllThingsD has also come close to confirming the September 12th announcement date for Apple's next iPhone. They haven't quite confirmed IMore's report, but they say that they've confirmed with their own sources that the announcement will be held the week of September 9th, with the 12th being the most likely date.

AllThingsD also points to a massive ramp-up in Apple's prepayments for components, as reported both by Wells Fargo Securities and Apple's own 10-Q filing. Apple's prepayments rose $1.15 billion in the June quarter to their highest level in four years--12.6% of Apple's total sales, according to Wells Fargo's Maynard Um. In a note to clients, Um said that these increases have been followed by ramp-ups in revenue in the following two to three quarters. AllThingsD also notes that the increase in component prepayments is so high that it suggests that multiple products are being readied for launch.

Is Jobs's "Reality Distortion Field" fading away?

Today's "big" announcement by Apple just ended--new versions of the iPod Nano and Touch, and a new version of iTunes, plus some new headphones and a lot of chest beating about the App Store. Almost everything had been leaked weeks ahead of the presentation, and even if Apple had kept a lid on it all, there would have been nothing all that exciting.

The new pricing for the iPod touch isn't going to drive sales (if you're even mildly interested in the 3G iPhone, you're crazy not to buy one of those rather than an iPod Touch.) The revisions of the iPod Nano are nice, but no one is going to be lining up to buy one; at best, it'll be a good replacement for previous-generation Nanos. Apple seems to think that the new "Genius" feature in iTunes (a ripoff of Pandora) is going to generate more sales, but I disagree.

The net of all of this is somewhere between "feh" and "so?". Any other company would have made these announcements with a press release, and perhaps, a press conference. With an announcement like this one, the very fact that Jobs was involved actually increases the disappointment level.

The last really important announcement that Apple did was the original iPhone; compared to that one, today's announcement doesn't even merit a footnote.