It just became August, and everybody is already talking about September. The industry is keeping a close eye on a potential September 12th announcement of the next iPhone, but it looks like Microsoft and Nokia are going to try and disrupt that with their own announcement.

Bloomberg has revealed in a piece about Nokia that the manufacturer plans to introduce their first Windows Phone 8 devices at Nokia World 2012. The event will begin in less than one month from today, on September 5th. Here's the choice quote:

Nokia plans to announce Windows Phone 8-based handsets as early as next month at its Nokia World event -- ahead of an expected Sept. 12 unveiling of the next version of the iPhone -- and have them for sale before the year-end holiday shopping season, said a person with knowledge of the matter, asking not to be identified because the plan isn’t public.

If this all sounds familiar, there was a similar rumor from a couple of weeks ago. We have to admit, the announcement is quite earlier than we expected but like we said, Microsoft and Nokia may really want to catch the competition off guard this time. We wonder if there will be any carrier partners announced as well, considering the news that Nokia wants to increase operators' financial stake in carrying a Lumia handset.

Via: The Nokia Blog
Source: Bloomberg