Did the iPhone 5 sell out 20x faster than previous models?

Well, maybe. TechCrunch reports that it only took one hour to "sell out" of the iPhone stock on Apple's site. Last we checked AT&T, Sprint and Verizon are still showing delivery dates of September 21. When I got up this morning to order my iPhone from Apple, the delivery had been pushed back to "two weeks" -- although it's conceivable Apple is managing expectations.

The iPhone 4S and 4 took less than a day to sell out. Reports of the usual site lags and crashes, failed carts and confirmations, wacky charges and oddball emails are all hitting this morning as last night there was obviously a huge crush of humanity clamoring to buy the latest and greatest iPhone.

I'll be eager to hear Apple's numbers. I'm not so sure their entire stock was wiped out in an hour, but before the iPhone 5 was announced, Gazelle.com told us they had seen a 600 percent increase in trade-ins over the previous iPhone announcement. In other words, a lot more people were willing to trade in whatever iPhone they had to get the 5, no matter what it did or didn't have.

And that's why Apple is the most valuable company in the world.