Apple Staffing Up for iPhone 5 Pre-orders Beginning on Morning of Friday, September 14?

Apple’s policies for pre-orders of its popular iOS devices have varied over the years, with the iPhone 4S being scheduled for a 12:01 AM Pacific Time launch on the Friday following the media event, although Apple’s pre-orders didn’t actually begin until nearly 45 minutes after the appointed time.

Last month, iMore reported that pre-orders were scheduled to begin on the same day as the media event, with availability set for nine days later. An exact timeframe for the pre-order launch was not given in the report, but a same-day window likely pointed toward pre-orders going live soon after the event as the Apple online store comes back online.

MacRumors is now hearing that pre-orders may not begin tomorrow following the media event and that they may instead start on Friday morning in a scenario similar to last year’s debut. We’re hearing that certain portions of Apple’s online sales support team are significantly increasing their staffing levels beginning at 6:00 AM Eastern on Friday, with a major surge for the initial shift beginning at that time and a sustained level of high staffing for at least the remainder of the day.

It is unclear whether pre-orders would begin immediately at the 6:00 AM shift start or some time shortly afterward, but these staffing levels suggest that customers may have to wait until the end of this week to pre-order their new iPhones for delivery a week later.