iPhone 5 launches this week

So, we’re finally here, and tomorrow, the iPhone 5 will be unveiled – assuming it will be called the iPhone 5, which the shadow “5” on the press invite (above) certainly seems to indicate.

And everyone is holding their breath as to what Cupertino will reveal, although one of the big headline features will almost certainly be a larger 4 inch display. Apple has, at least to some extent, got to keep up with the Android Joneses who are pushing (or exceeding) 5 inches.

The new iPhone will also be 4G LTE compatible, which has led some – such as the Telegraph – to speculate that Everything Everywhere could carry the device. That’s mainly because this week, Everything Everywhere is kicking off the launch of its 1800MHz LTE service… so theoretically could have an exclusive on the 4G iPhone.

But that would cause quite the stink – and also it’s not quite as simple a matter as the iPhone 5 having 4G LTE support, and that’s that. There are many different 4G bands worldwide, far more than 3G, which makes it a pain to incorporate – as you can’t possibly support them all.

That means slightly different phones for different countries, potentially, and a lot of complications.

Is Apple going to pull its tripe out for Everything Everywhere’s limited support of 4G in the UK as it stands? Probably not. That’s likely something for the iPhone 6, this time in 2013, when 4G will properly start to go live across all UK network operators.

At any rate, analysts seem pretty convinced that the iPhone 5 will sell bucket-loads across the UK. It’s not a difficult prediction to make, though, given how much the iPhone 4S sold last year, even though it wasn’t hugely innovative over and above the iPhone 4.

Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray reckons that should the iPhone be on sale for the last week of September, as is allegedly planned, then in that debut week it’ll push from 6 to 10 million units (via All Things D).

We wouldn’t argue against that prediction…