One of the big questions everyone’s asking about the iPhone at the moment is whether or not a fifth generation device will launch this summer. According to a new report from Korean site ETNews.co.kr, Apple is planning to release the iPhone 5 during the 4th week of June, with Korean carriers SK Telecom and KT among the first providers to offer the device:

iPhone 5, the next model of iPhone 4, will be released on the coming 4th week of June. In the midst of the iPhone 5 postponement rumors, Apple has confirmed that iPhone 5 will be released as planned and it will be released simultaneously in Korea through SK Telecom and KT.

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Word that Apple may not release the iPhone 5 as early as expected prompted some observers to talk of a “delay.” Naturally, Wall Street’s sensitive rumor tripwire went into action, the result the start of analysts downgrading estimates for the iPhone.

Piper Jeffries’ Peter Misek Wednesday morning shaved four percent from his fiscal year 2011 revenue projection, telling investors he expects the Cupertino, Calif. company to rake in $103 billion, rather than his previously estimated $106.9 billion. The fiscal year ends September. More dramatic is the analyst’s double-digit refiguring of iPhone shipments.

Apple’s tagline for this year’s WWDC is “Join us for a preview of the future of iOS and Mac OS X.” Jim Dalrymple over at the Loop says that tagline is worded very carefully, and that according to his sources, Apple will not announce any new hardware at the event… pushing the release of the iPhone 5 back indefinitely.

Traditionally, Apple unveils the newest iPhone every June at WWDC, along with iPod Touches in September and new iPads in March, but according to Dalrymple, Apple’s going to mix this up this year. Why?

“You get caught up in patterns, and it holds true, until it doesn’t,” Gartenberg told The Loop. “There is no reason for Apple to follow a predictable yearly pattern, and it keeps their competition off guard a little bit.”

With the iPad 2 set to launch internationally on Friday, it’s time to set our eyes upon the next big thing… the iPhone 5’s debut in June or July. Apple certainly is: China Times is reporting that the iPhone 5 has entered trial production and is scheduled for wide scale release in Q3 of this year, which aligns with the iPhone’s traditional late June / early July release date.

As for what the iPhone 5 will look like, the latest report supports rumors suggesting that the iPhone 5 will mostly be similar to an iPhone 4s, with the major differences being a slightly larger 4-inch touchscreen in the same form factor (accomplished by having less room between the side bezels of the device), as well as a metal chassis to make the device lighter and improve antenna sensitivity.

Although not much more than a questionable confirmation of existing rumors, 9to5Mac is claiming that a source close to Foxconn has told them that the iPhone 5 will have a larger edge-to-edge screen and an aluminum back while otherwise sharing the form factor of the iPhone 4.We’re not sure what to make of these rumors.

John Gruber over at Daring Fireball said something recently that made a lot of Apple’s more seemingly incredible business decisions make sense to me: Apple wants to cut out the middle men by becoming the only middle man anyone using an iOS device needs to go through.

If you keep that in mind, it makes today’s latest news about Apple’s NFC ambitions make more sense. Reportedly, Apple has told carriers that the iPhone 5 won’t have NFC, as Apple is reportedly “concerned about a lack of a clear [NFC] standard.”

Is this the iPhone 5? iDealsChina sure seems to think so. They say this is an engineering diagram of the next-generation iPhone, and while it shares the same form factor as the iPhone 4, there’s one obvious difference: a larger display made possible by shaving the side bezels down to the thickness of a razor blade.

Remember that 64GB iPhone 4 prototype we posted about yesterday, seemingly legit right down to its blanked out serial number and crossed out capacity? The lovely lads over at MIC Gadget got a chance to play with it hands-on themselves, and unless they’re in on the conspiracy, their hands-on time seems to confirm that the 64GB iPhone 4 was very real indeed. It even has the same silver ring around the camera lens that the lost Gizmodo bar prototype had.

But who cares if an iPhone 4 prototype has 64GB of storage if you can’t buy one, right? Interestingly, though, MIC Gadget’s source for the prototype — who says it was leaked from Foxconn’s Shenzhen factory — says he’s heard that the next iPhone will bring 64GB of storage capacity to all users.

That’s interesting for more than just the obvious reason. The iPhone has only one flash module inside of it, compared to the iPod Touch’s two, so it implised the iPod Touch might make the leap to 128GB of capacity in September. Once that happens, say goodbye to the iPod Classic: it’s managed to hold on until now simply by being the iPod you buy if you want to carry your entire music library with you, but once the Touch reaches 128GB, it’s all over for the iPod that started it al.

Every so often, a new Apple product comes along with a breakthrough form factor that Jonathan Ive’s design team will riff on for years to come. As a result, there are many recurring motifs that provide clues to where Apple’s industrial design is heading.

Although the results are undeniably gorgeous, Apple’s decision to switch from the 3GS’s plastic back to a glass one for the iPhone 4 has been a disastrous one. Not only did Apple have to put out the fires on “Glassgate” shortly after the fiasco of Antennagate thank to the the glass backing’s tendency to crack when used with a slider-style iPhone case, but the glass backing has also proven to be a nightmare for Apple when it came to releasing the white iPhone 4, thanks to the glass’ tendency to leak light onto the camera sensor.

Reports now indicate that Apple wants to ditch the glass in the iPhone 5, instead moving back to the aluminum back found in the original iPhone. Cupertino ditched aluminum in the iPhone 3G because of wireless and cellular connectivity issues, but it’s thought that advances in antenna design might have mitigated the connectivity drawbacks of aluminum.