Though Apple has yet to confirm whether they’re releasing a new iPhone this year, a Chinese retailer already started taking pre-orders for the upcoming iPhone.

The Chinese retail store posted an iPhone 5 pre-order advertising board featuring a large scale image of the 2011 iPod Touch accompanied by a smaller image of an iPhone 5 mockup featuring a larger, edge-to-edge 4-inch display.

As for the release date of the next iPhone, the Chinese retail store failed to give any information – it doesn’t seem like they know anything about it, they just wanted to get ahead of their competitors.

Rumor has it Apple will be releasing the next iPhone, together with the iPad mini, and the much awaited Apple TV, sometime in late September, and the devices will probably go on sale by the first week of October.

As for the price of the next iPhone, there’s a huge chance that it would cost nearly $70 more than the iPhone 4S.  The price prediction is based on the price of the 16GB iPhone 3GS when it was released, compared to its successors’ prices.  The price increased somewhere between $30-$60, so it is believed that the next iPhone would be more expensive.

iPhone 5 expected features

New information recently surfaced about the possible features of the next iPhone.  Some are betting that it will be equipped with A6, believed to be Apple’s version of a quad-core processor, to compete with the growing standard in the handset market.

Digitimes reports that Apple “is also expected to release its next-generation iPhone built on Samsung’s Exynos 4 quad-core processor in the second half, heating up competition in the segment…”  But a lot are doubting since Digitimes isn’t always a reliable source.

Another rumor is that the next iPhone will have NFC support, and it looks like that rumor may have some truth to it as Apple has been awarded the patent for iTravel – “a method and system for transportation check-in (e.g.:, ticketing and identification) via near field communication (NFC) using a handheld electronic device, such as a cellular phone or a personal media player”.  But there’s still a possibility that Apple filed for the patent but won’t actually use it.

As for the other rumored features, the next iPhone is expected to have a drastic design overhaul – some are saying a teardrop design with an oval-shaped home button, a 19-pin dock connector, in-cell touch panels for the touch functionality without adding an extra glass, Quantum Dot LED curved glass with edge-to-edge display, larger screen as in more than four inches, 3D display, iOS 6, 1GB RAM, 8MP or higher rear camera and a 2MP front camera.