Is this a Nano SIM tray for the next iPhone?

Hot on the heels of recent news that European carriers were stocking up on a 40 percent smaller Nano SIMs as they got to test the new SIM card standard extensively ahead of the next iPhone’s release in September, a French blog this morning posted a series of image depicting a purported Nano SIM tray for the iPhone 5. Also leaked, a slightly reworked and a bit smaller home button thought to be making an appearance on the next iPhone. More pics right after the break…

French blog NowhereElse.fr has the story (machine-translated):

Presented as being designed to slip into the SIM card slot of the iPhone 5, this element seems in turn confirm that the next iPhone indeed adopt this new standard imposed by Apple.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute has picked Apple’s Nano SIM proposal as an industry standard in June.

The site also claims that all major French telcos placed large orders for Nano SIMs ahead of the next iPhone’s release on September 21. NowhereElse.fr apparently got hold of these images from a source in China.

Apple was allegedly pushing hard for a smaller SIM card because space is at premium inside the next iPhone and engineers needed some extra room to squeeze components inside a thinner enclosure.

The site also posted images showing a smaller home button that we saw last Friday in a video depicting side-by-side comparison of the front panel of the existing iPhone 4/4S and the next iPhone.

Here it is.

Note that we couldn’t establish veracity of the story at press time. For all we know, the next iPhone could sport the regular Micro SIM tray though some of the leaks indicate a smaller drawer, quite possibly to accommodate the new, 40 percent smaller Nano SIM card.

For what it’s worth, Apple’s September thing is increasingly looking like a non-event given the amount of iPhone 5-related leaks unless, of course, Apple’s taken us all for a ride.

Are you excited about Nano SIM making debuting on the iPhone 5?