Apple pushes back shipping date for iPhone 5

 Apple has already pushed back shipping estimates for iPhone 5 pre-orders, just hours after the phone was added to Apple's online store.

The iPhone page on Apple's online store promises a release date of Sept. 21 in retail stores, but the pre-order page for the phone says all three models--the 16GB, the 32GB and the 64GB--will be shipped in two weeks if ordered online today.

Apple had previously announced the iPhone 5 would be available online and in retail stores on Sept. 21, and customers could pre-order the phone online starting on Sept. 14. When the iPhone 5 page went live yesterday in the online store, the page noted that iPhones pre-ordered online would ship by Sept. 21, The Next Web reports. That notice has been replaced by another notice, "available to ship in two weeks," in the U.S., France, the U.K., Germany and Australia.

TechCrunch reports that Apple changed its shipping estimates for the iPhone 5 just one hour after it became available for pre-order online, compared with the 22 hours that it took for the iPhone 4S to sell out in pre-order and the 20 hours that it took for the iPhone 4 to sell out in pre-order.

The iPhone is also available for pre-order through its U.S. phone carriers, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. All three carriers report an expected delivery date of Sept. 21 for all models of the iPhone 5.