Last year they announced the iP4S on 10/4/11 and started pre-orders on 10/7/11 and shipped them on 10/14/11.
So following that logic and since the 9-12-12 date has been bantered about so much I see Apple upsetting the cart by having an announcement on 9-7-12 or 9-10-12 with a pre-order start date of 9-12-12 and shipping on 9-21-12 or there abouts. Apple doesn't follow the norm.
Yeah I'm getting the phone regardless, the sooner the preorder date the better. I'll be dropping Sprint, signing up with AT&T and preordering at bestbuy.