The iPhone 5's rumored release date of Sept. 21, which seems to many as the final answer, has wound down the rumor mills of the much-anticipated launch of the smartphone.

However, a manufacturing delay may end up delaying the show stopper of the gadget industry.

The latest speculation for the iPhone 5 release date points to Sept. 21, which comes a week after a major Apple event on Sept. 12, when the smartphone, which is rumored to sport numerous dramatic changes from the previous iPhones. Coinciding the press conference, Apple is also expected to release iOS 6.

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The specific date of Sept. 21 came about from a Tech Crunch report stating that Verizon and AT&T employees are not allowed to take vacation between Sept. 21 and 30.

The rumors concluded that the iPhone 5 will be vailable for pre-order on Sept. 12, and hit the store on Sept. 21.

The rumored date corresponds to an earlier speculation in July, when App4Phone, a French iFansite website, reported that Apple directly spilled the release date of iPhone 5. While leaking the release date of its products is the last thing the California-based tech giant would do, the site claimed that an unnamed accessory manufacture at one of Hong Kong’s largest factories received such tips, according to a source allegedly “close to Apple.”

While all these unofficial claims sound credible enough, some parts of the supposedly ground-breaking iPhone 5 may not catch up with the unconfirmed release date.

Sharp has reportedly delayed the production of the iPhone screens, according to an unnamed source of The Wall Street Journal.

While Sharp was originally planning to ship by the end of September, manufacturing difficulties made timely shipment unfeasible.

Sharp is one of three LCD panel suppliers for the next-generation iPhone. The other two suppliers, Japan Display Inc. and LG Display, have begun snding screens to Apple, WSJ reported.

Sharp's delay is caused by the high costs of manufacturing the screens, a source familiar with the company's production operations told Reuters. 

The screen of the iPhone 5 will be thinner after the touch-screen layer is eliminated, and 30 percent bigger as the panels will extend 4 inches corner to corner, sources told Reuters.