iPhone 5 pre-order supplies in the US sell out in under an hour

If you've visited a tech blog or taken a peek at Twitter since the official unveiling of Apple's iPhone 5, you'll probably have seen plenty of highly critical articles about, and comments on, the perceived "disappointing" new smartphone.

Still, in spite of this, it looks like Apple has managed to flog its entire initial stock of Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint iPhone 5s. In less than an hour.

In fact, according to website TechCrunch, pre-order supplies of the iPhone 5 in the US have sold out around 20 times faster than those of the iPhone 4 and 4S.

The iPhone 5's estimated delivery time is now two weeks rather than one. The rush to pre-order the Cupertino company's new blower caused error messages and other issues on Apple.com and some of the US carriers' websites.

Naturally, we'll have to wait for official numbers from Apple before we label the iPhone 5 a runaway success story. After all, it's entirely possible that the new smartphone sold out quicker than its predecessors simply because Apple's manufacturers have produced less stock.