Apple Inc. put the iPhone 4S on sale last week and while consumers have been very receptive, buying 4 million units over the weekend, there are already rumblings about the next-generation iPhone 5. Just before the iPhone 4S was announced, many in the tech world expected a release of the iPhone 5. Instead, Apple provided the iPhone 4S, which was certainly not the much-hyped iPhone 5. Now analysts are wondering what really happened in Cupertino, Calif., and when or if the iPhone 5 will ever be set free to an impatient public.

One compelling theory about the iPhone 5 is that the device was actually the last project that late CEO Steve Jobs was working on. According to CNET, Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman and Renshaw, wrote in a research note that "the last project Steve Jobs was intimately involved with from concept to final design" was the iPhone 5. Because of his involvement, the iPhone 5 will be an instant cult classic to many Apple fans who venerated Jobs. A CNET article about the story cited sources inside Apple saying the iPhone 5 will be a complete redesign and will have access to 4G technology.

Meanwhile, at 9to5Mac, its sources explain why the iPhone 5 was pushed back. Apple was initially going to release two iPhones at the WWDC this year, the iPhone 4s and the teardrop iPhone 5 along with the new iOS 5. 9to5MacSteve, like CNET, says Jobs was overseeing the project. But Apple tried to speed up the iPhone 5 hardware development so that it could be released this year. Apple's partners at Foxconn had trouble integrating the digital assistant Siri into the new iOS 5, which affected the rest of the schedule. The iPhone 4S was pushed back to after the WWDC and the iOS 5 release, and so was the iPhone 5.

Analysts are expecting the iPhone 5 to be available next summer. Excited Apple fans should try to contain their enthusiasm because plans can change, as we've seen.

"People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome." - George Orwell, Partisan Review, Winter 1945.