Apple Start Shipping iPhone 5 In Black Boxes Preparing For The Official Launch

A new report indicates that Apple has started shipping the iPhone 5 to carriers around the globe in tightly sealed black boxes for final testing before the company starts producing the next generation iPhone in volume.

The report comes from Charles Arthur, editor of the popular UK publication, The Guardian. His sources tell him the following:

The next iPhones go for their testing inside locked and sealed boxes so that the carriers can carry out checks on their network compatibility in their labs. It's very high security, as you could guess; my understanding is that barely anyone inside the carriers gets to open those boxes, and even when they do the hardware is encased in a dummy body which means there's no clue to what the actual phone will do. This, by the way, is what led to "Antennagate": there simply hadn't been enough people outside Apple who had tried the iPhone 4 at length in its real form to discover the problems with its reception.

As per this report, it seems that its possible that Apple may have disguised the next generation iPhone so as to minimize any chances of leaks. These boxes are only provided to the carriers so that they can test if the upcoming device has any issues when connecting to their network. Only the highest staff members are allowed to rarely open the boxes.

With a release slated for October, it seems like testing of the next generation iPhone has rapidly increased. Let's just hope that Apple release the details themselves, soon.