Apple has sent out cryptic email invitations to members of the press for a launch event to be held in San Francisco. The invitation taunts “It’s almost here” and in large font, the number 12’s shadow ambiguously casts a number ‘5’.

The Californian September 12 event will take place in Australia early September 13.

The iPhone 5 is expected to be a radical revision of the Apple smartphone, which hasn’t been overhauled since the iPhone 4 was launched over two years ago, in July of 2010.

A larger, 4 inch touchscreen, smaller charging port, the inclusion of NFC technology and LTE 4G technology are the rumoured changes.

Click to enlarge

We dropped the brightness of the invite down to -85 (Adobe Fireworks) and it revealed this convincing shadow

Analysts are referring to the event as the “biggest handset launch in history.”

“A new iPhone is in line with all of our expectations,” said ISI analyst Brian Marshall. 

“Frankly, the iPhone 4S is a bit long in the tooth from a technological standpoint. For example, most smartphones now have the larger 4-inch screens, so I’m sure we’ll see the new iPhone with that larger screen as well.”

Read Apple iPhone 5: 4.08″ Screen, 7.9mm Thin, Report

A second event is tipped to be announced at a later date for a rumoured Apple iPad Mini.

Source: MercuryNews