October iPhone Event to Be Held on Apple Campus

Historically, Apple has held its big product demonstrations in San Francisco. The iPad and iPad 2 were unveiled there, as were all iterations of the iPhone to date.

This year things are going to be different. This year, Apple’s holding its big iPhone media event closer to home.

Sources close to the company say the demonstration — currently scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 4, a date first reported by AllThingsD — will be held at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, Calif.

Why? That’s not entirely clear. Perhaps the release date was too much of a moving target to risk booking a large space like Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), which has hosted a number of big product unveils in the past. Perhaps, the company felt a more intimate venue was best for newly installed CEO Tim Cook’s first media event. Perhaps YBCA was simply already booked. Whatever the reason, the world will get its first look at the next iPhone at Apple’s Town Hall Auditorium in early October.

UPDATE: As a number of commenters note below, Oracle OpenWorld 2011, which runs from Oct. 2 – 6, likely has a lock on any space that Apple might have chosen for this event.