Rumors Mount for September 12th Apple Media Event

The Apple Crystal BallRumors are mounting that Apple will be holding a media event on September 12th to introduce a new iPhone. iMore kicked off a frenzy with a report about the event early Monday morning, and The Loop tossed a single word into the fray, “Yep.”

One word, you say? What’s in a word? The Loop’s founder Jim Dalrymple is known for having a tight relationship with Apple, and while he didn’t specify his source, that one word post has a lot of history suggesting Apple will indeed be holding the event.

Invitations have not yet gone out, and iMore’s original report focused on the expected fall update to Apple’s iPhone line. Speculation that Apple will also use the event to introduce a 7-inch iPad (dubbed iPad mini by many) has bloomed like a thousand Internet flowers.

Investors are cheered by the idea, with Apple’s stock advancing on Monday to close at US$595.03, up $9.87 (+1.69 percent), on light volume of 13.5 million shares trading hands. While Apple’s announcement of selling 3 million copies of Mountain Lion in the first four days of availability also played a role, a September quarter release of the iPhone could help boost Apple’s quarterly results.

As Wells Fargo analyst Maynard Um put it in a research note to clients, “Given our anticipation for an October launch, a September launch time frame would be ahead of schedule and likely result in upside to our current September quarter forecasts. We believe an earlier launch would also be viewed positively by investors and expect anticipation to continue to build through August.”

At this point, you can probably mark it on your calendar.