Another way to phrase that would be "the most important smartphone announcement in 20 years" since the unveiling of IBM's Simon product, according to a of the smartphone's so-far-brief existence.

Epstein notes that the iPhone 4S "marked the biggest device launch in the company's history," selling a record 4 million units in its first weekend "despite the new model's striking resemblance to the iPhone 4." There's just no accounting for taste, apparently.

And according to Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope, "Apple's next smartphone launch will be even bigger," Epstein assures his readers. Though the analyst doesn't exactly say that.

What he says, in a note to investors this week, is this: "The iPhone 5 launch is likely to be one of the most important smartphone product cycles we've seen to date."

We're already sinking into a surfeit of superlatives. So far we have iPhone 5 being the: