Apple appears to be cutting down on available vacation time for its AppleCare employees between September 15 and 28, a two week period encompassing the prospective September 20 release date for the iPhone 5S and 5C that was first leaked earlier this month. iOS 7 is also expected to be released that week.
An internal document shared by AppleInsider reportedly shows the amount of time off available for AppleCare employees during the month of September, which appears to drop beginning on September 15.
An internal company document shared with AppleInsider purportedly shows time off available for AppleCare employees for the latter half of September. As can be seen in the calendar, available time off drops off significantly starting Sunday, Sept. 15, and continues through Saturday, Sept. 28.
The image provided shows the calendar being accessed via virtual private network from an internal Apple employee domain. Potentially identifying portions of the picture have been cropped out.
Multiple carriers have also initiated similar vacation blackout dates on some of the same days, with T-Mobile employees reporting a September 20 to 22 blackout and Verizon employees reporting September 18 to September 22 blackout dates.
Apple likely has a longer blackout period for its AppleCare employees in order to offer extended support to both iOS 7 users and new iPhone owners. AppleCare employees began training on support issues related to iOS 7 yesterday and that training is likely to continue up until the OS is distributed to the public.
