Your iPhone 5 may already have shipped. Here’s how to tell. [Updated]

If you were up very early in the morning on Friday ordering an iPhone 5, chances are you’re the kind of person who’ll be hitting “Reload” repeatedly on the Apple order status page to see if your device has shipped. In most cases, you’ll likely see that it’s still “Preparing for shipment.”

preparing

But there’s a good chance Your Beloved may already have left the factory where it was made. AppleInsider reports that shipments have started leaving the Foxconn plant at ZhengZhou, China, even though Apple’s site isn’t updated in many cases.

upstrackAnd 9to5Mac has one example of an iPhone 5 that’s in the U.S. and in transit via FedEx for an estimated delivery date of today. That likely won’t happen, but there have been instances in the past where iPhones or iPads arrived before the official ship date.

Apple ships either via FedEx or UPS. If your iPhone 5 is coming via UPS, you may be able to see if your order has left the factory even if Apple’s status page hasn’t changed.

Go to the shipment tracking page on UPS’ website and click the Track By Reference menu item in the left column.

In the Shipment Reference field, enter the phone number that’s associated with the shipment. This may or may not be the cell number on the iPhone – it might be the number associated with your billing address.

Select the destination country and then fill in the destination ZIP code (or Postal Code if you’re outside the U.S.). Click Track.

You may see that your package is now on the move . . . or not. In my case, it shows some movement within ZhengZhou, but it apparently isn’t yet winging its way to the United States.

At the very least, going through this exercise will reveal the tracking number Apple will eventually send you, which will make obsessively checking Beloved’s progress much easier.

intransitups

Update: Apple says there were more than 2 million iPhone 5 pre-orders in the first 24 hours of online sales. AT&T was also happy about its pre-orders.

And, there are already people lining up at London and New York City Apple stores to buy the phone on Friday, though their motives are not altogether pure.

Update 2.0: FedEx has a similar process for finding a shipment if you don’t yet have a tracking number.