Sprint begins briefing sales associates on iPhone 4 for October launch (Updated)

A Sprint Nextel sales associate told TUAW that the carrier has started briefing its employees on an imminent Sprint iPhone 4 launch.

The briefing reportedly told the sales team that Sprint will begin offering the iPhone 4 in October 2011 (next month) with standard Sprint data plans; they will include a $10 data smartphone premium that is not specific to iPhone.

The associate also suggested that Sprint will carry a 4G iPad, though launch dates and pricing were still unknown. Of course, Sprint already sells 4G access for the iPad via its external mobile 4G WiFi product; maybe that's what the briefing referenced.

If the associate's information is accurate, Sprint will not get the iPhone 5 until 2012, most likely by early spring. The sales briefing report aligns with Bloomberg's story about the potential arrival date on Sprint of both the 4 and 5 models, and with but the WSJ reporting on the phone's rollout schedule explicitly called for an iPhone 5 in October along with VZW and AT&T availability. It's not clear why our source was convinced of the iPhone 5's 2012 release schedule on Sprint, but that's what we were told repeatedly.

We have reached out to Sprint's press office for comment, but have not heard back (and we don't expect to). The response was a boilerplate "Thanks for your inquiry; we do not comment on rumors or speculation."

Update: A commenter suggests one theory for the iPhone 4 vs. iPhone 5 detail: that Sprint's training materials may be featuring the iPhone 4 simply to avoid inadvertently leaking features of the iPhone 5, much as Verizon's initial iPhone training was based on the 3GS rather than the then-unreleased iPhone 4. That does not explain why our source was so solidly convinced that the iPhone 5 introduction for Sprint would be in 2012, however.

Thanks, Nick A.