Apple began the pre-order for its latest iPhone 5 early on Friday, Sept. 14, morning and the initial inventory was sold out within just one hour. Now an analyst suggests that iPhone sales can climb to as high as 27 million in the September quarter.

Initial estimates from Shaw Wu, a Sterne Agee analyst, suggested that the iPhone 5 sales will reach 23 million; however, this figure has now been revised to 27 million.

Apple launched its flagship iPhone 5 smartphone on Sept.12 and iFans have embraced the device. The iPhone 5 will sport a 4-inch display, a much improved A6 processor, superior battery, an upgraded operating system, and improved features, which are expected to appeal to both smartphone enthusiasts and tech pundits alike.

"We find it interesting that many tech blogs and reviewers panned the iPhone 5 saying it 'lacked the wow factor' similar to the iPhone 4 that was plagued by 'antennagate' and the iPhone 4S which was a relatively "minor" and 'disappointing' update with Siri as the key new feature. The previous iPhones went on to sell record number of units and we believe iPhone 5 will likely see a similar result. We continue to believe iPhone 5 will put a lot of pressure on competitors where it will incrementally capture a portion of customers attracted to Android/Windows smart phones with larger screens and/or 4G LTE wireless," reports Wu.

Apple's previous iterations of the iPhone have seen high demand and achieved sales milestones of their own. It may not come as a surprise if the latest iPhone 5 meets or even surpasses the sales predictions of the analysts.

Till now users have just had glimpses of the iPhone 5 and are eagerly waiting to lay their hands on the next-gen smartphone. Time will tell if Apple will be able to meet the high expectations of the smartphone enthusiasts.