WSJ: Sprint will sell the iPhone 5 in mid-October

At TUAW we typically look the other way when it comes to iPhone rumors, but once something hits the Wall Street Journal, we pretty much consider it a done deal. The WSJ now reports that Sprint will offer the iPhone 5 in mid-October, bringing the handset to the third-largest US carrier. The iPhone 5 will hit AT&T and Verizon at the same mid-October date. This is according to the Journal's sources, "people familiar with the matter," who have usually turned out reliable information in the past.

The Journal notes that the mid-October launch points to a later-than-expected launch for the iPhone 5, which was expected to debut in September. If the WSJ's sources are correct, and if Apple follows its prior pattern, it's likely the iPhone 5 will be announced sometime in September with the hardware hitting the market around 30 days later.

Sprint is the second-largest CDMA carrier in the US, and rumors about the iPhone coming to that network have abounded since even before the CDMA-model iPhone 4 hit Verizon. If the iPhone 5 does indeed make it to Sprint, T-Mobile will be the last major wireless carrier to not offer Apple's handsets.