9to5Mac reported Wednesday that an anonymous source sent the site information about the new SKUs. Apple usually adds SKUs, or Stock Keeping Unit identification numbers, to its system shortly before releasing new products, and Apple employees and third party resellers frequently leak that fact to Mac online sites.
The two iPhone SKUs have attached to them a codename of N90A. N90 was the codename for the iPhone 4, and it is currently being speculated that N90A would therefore be some variation of the iPhone 4.
Various leaks and other rumors have long held that Apple would release some kind of new iPhone 4 this fall, a device that would occupy the new entry level of Apple’s smartphone product line. Accordingly, N90A could, indeed, be a new iPhone 4 model, and the different SKUs might represent a white model and a black model.
Of course, the big rumor has been that Apple will release an “iPhone 5,” a new model with a different form factor, an A5 processor (the iPhone 4 uses the A4 while iPad 2 uses the A5), a new camera, and other new innards. The codename that has been bandied about for this device is N94, and this includes references inside of Apple’s own iOS SDK to the N94.
If Apple is going to release this new iPhone 5, we’ll likely see new SKUs in the days leading up to the October 4th media event.
In the meanwhile, there are also three new iPod touch SKUs. All three are attached to a codename of N81A. Take off the A, and you’ll have N81, the codename for the current generation of iPod touch. The speculation is that N81A is, therefore, a reference to three new models of the current generation of iPod touch, but now with more White™.
Then again, Apple could just be messing with us, knowing these SKUs leak so quickly.