A U.K. marketing company that says it's working for Apple is looking to recruit iPhone salespeople for an "exciting project" from August 16 through October 29, touching off the latest round of iPhone 5 speculation fever.
See You in September?
Apple, of course, is saying nothing on the subject of whether there will be a brand new iPhone, a small update, or a version for new carriers, but there are many signs to indicate the refresh that was due in June will appear in early fall along with the newest (announced) version of its mobile 
operating system, iOS 5.
The job listing by Gekko Ltd. for an in-store promotion project seeks people with a "passion and keen interest in Apple products" who are "sales driven and target orientated" and will "work closely alongside both management and staff within the store to generate and grow iPhone sales to ensure sales targets are met."
The gamut of rumors now runs from a possible low-end iPhone to a complete redesign, with speculation as well about a redesigned touchscreen that extends between both edges, and even the addition of near-field communication sensing for electronic payments.
And then there is the report in CNET that Piper Jaffray analyst Chris Larsen expects the new iPhone to complete the circuit of the big four carriers with versions for T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel. The iPhone launched in 2007 on AT&T , which is trying to acquire T-Mobile, and became available for Verizon Wireless users in March.
"It appears that Apple mania is in full swing," said technology analyst and commentator Michael Gartenberg of Gartner Research. "It's not only iPhone 5 that the rumor mill is speculating about, but iPhone 6 as well. Few companies can command the mindshare Apple has, and that mindshare translates to market share."
As of the end of last year Apple has sold more than 73 million iPhones.
Troubles, Too
In other iPhone news, it was revealed Thursday that Apple recently was forced by a South Korean court to pay about $1,000 to Kim Hyung-suk, a lawyer, as compensation for collecting data without his authorization, Reuters reported. The payment stems from a lawsuit filed after a tech site in April discovered that iPhones stored location data in a file called consolidated.db.
Apple blamed a bug in the system and said it had been fixed by firmware updates.
While the Korean sum is minuscule, the case fueled concerns about data collection in the millions of iPhones that could potentially reveal a year's worth of users' comings and goings. Such information is vastly valuable to mobile marketing companies, like Ad Mob. There are class-action lawsuits pending in the United States as well as South Korea.
Reuters said the controversy could give a leg up in the Korean market to Seoul-based Samsung, whose Galaxy smartphones are a major competitor there.
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