Is Apple planning to announce iPhone 7 on September 7?

Apple September 2105 event Tim Cook opening 004

With no official invites going out yet, speculation continues to mount as to when Apple might beĀ holding a media event to announce the next iPhone. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are going to be unveiled at an event tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, September 7, less than four weeks from today.

HisĀ report yesterday about the next MacBook Pro with an OLED touch strip mentionsĀ as a side-note that the refreshed notebooks ā€œarenā€™t likely to debut at an event currently scheduled for September 7 to introduce next-generation versions of the iPhoneā€.

The company has not officially announced the September 7 date.

An Apple spokesperson declined to comment.

Although theĀ claimĀ isĀ attributed to one of the ā€œpeople familiar with the matterā€, which is too often an euphemism for the ā€rumor-mill,ā€ GurmanĀ is a well-connected Apple reporter who cut his teeth at 9to5Mac so there’s no reason to call his statementĀ into question.

On the other hand, he may have simply extrapolated the launch event date from prolific leakster Evan Blass’s tweetĀ saying the forthcomingĀ phones will hit retail stores on Friday, September 16, withĀ pre-orders beginning on Friday, September 9.

If accurate, such aĀ scheduleĀ isĀ somewhat unusual as it leaves Apple with justĀ seven days to collect pre-orders for the new phones, before they land on store shelves. In the past, pre-orders for new iPhone models usually lasted for two weeks.

For context, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus were introduced on Wednesday, September 9, 2015. Apple started taking pre-orders for the devices on Saturday, September 12, ahead of their retail availability on Friday, September 25.

Were Apple to collect pre-orders for the new phones during theĀ usualĀ two-week window between the announcement and launchā€”and assuming Blass’sĀ September 16 retail availability claim is accurateā€”then the press event should happen on Tuesday, September 1.

Apple usually sends out invites about two weeks before actual launch events so we’re expecting official confirmation early next week.

So, what do you guys think? When’s iPhone 7 event going to take place, on the 1st or the 7th? Conventional wisdom tells me September 1, but my money is on the 7th.