This week, Apple started sending out invitations to its September 12 event, largely considered to be its iPhone 5 event. Much of the talk leading up to this, suggested that it was unlikely that the device would actually be called the iPhone 5.

When the company unveiled the most recent version of the iPad, it was simply called the “New iPad,” despite rumors leading up to that of an “iPad 3”.

However, there is a not-so-subtle hint pointing to an “iPhone 5” release in the invitation graphic, which looks like this:

Can you spot it?

Either this thing is actually going to be called the iPhone 5, or Apple is very blatantly messing with everyone. The blogs and press have been calling this device the iPhone 5 since the iPhone 4S was announced. In fact, before that, we were calling that the iPhone 5. Some people even held off from purchasing the 4S simply because it was not the “iPhone 5”.

In fact, anticipation of the iPhone 5 has even hurt Apple’s iPhone sales, though it has hardly hurt the company’s value.

Gizmodo recently made a pretty good case for why the device would most likely not be called the iPhone 5. As the publication noted, the original 2G iPhone was just called the iPhone, the second one was called the iPhone 3G, the third one was called the 3GS, the fourth one was called the iPhone 4, and the fifth one was called the 4S. The major point being that the fifth generation iPhone already exists, and it’s not called the iPhone 5.

But why the 5 in the graphic? The mystery continues. We’ll know soon enough.

Some analysts expect Apple to sell 250 million iPhone 5s.

More on the alleged iPhone 5 here.