Each new iPhone has traditionally come out in June at the WWDC, which would mean June 6th. That of course is not set in stone, and I have see rumors that it could be pushed back to fall, and there might be other factors considering Verizon is a different situation. Either way, the phone should be out by the end of the year.

There will not be a new iPhone at WWDC. Apple has pretty much said so. I’m expecting the release of new ones at the iPod event in September.

What @math_nerd said.

“Sometime this year” is the best guess anyone can give at this point.

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Apple is very, very secretive and never shares plans for upcoming products unless they have a strong business need to do so.

Announcing the release date of iPhone 5 will simply freeze the current sales of iPhone 4 (exactly the situation you’re describing for yourself here). Apple prefers to manage people’s expectations so that they better coincide with Apple’s own manufacturing/retail agenda.

The risk for the consumer is to buy the old phone just days before the new one comes out. In recent years, Apple has been pretty cool about allowing those folks to either upgrade for free to the newest, or providing some sort of rebate to offset the perceived loss of value.