Earlier today Verizon announced that Lowell McAdam would be replacing Ivan Seidenberg as the company's new CEO, and one of the first acts from McAdam in his position was to take to CNBC and dish about the upcoming iPhone. In between talking about Verizon's second quarter financial numbers and his company's lack of "revenue acceleration" recently, McAdam slipped in the following tidbit about Apple's next smartphone:

“We had assumed that we would see an iPhone early in the summertime as it’s been usually, and that’s going to be a little later in the year now.”

You don't say, Mr. McAdam? As if that wasn't enough, the exec touched a bit more on the iPhone 5 during an analyst call today, saying that although they don't know precisely when the device will come out, they "expect that probably sometime in the fall." Obviously McAdam hasn't given up any precise release information, but his statements today do seem to support the rumors that the new iPhone could be here as soon as September. I'm sure that this won't be the last time we hear talk of the iPhone 5's release date, but hey, it's probably the closest thing we'll come to official launch details until Steve Jobs (or whoever else) whips the handset out on stage later this year.

Via This is my next, MacRumors, Boston.com, CNBC