According to unsubstantiated reports on Business Insider, the iPhone 5 we hoped Apple would launch in October this year did exist, but the company chose not to go with the new design.

We could not find another source to substantiate the BI informer claims, so take everything with a healthy dose of salt, but it does however fit logically in the greater scheme of things Apple.

Apparently, this source was proven correct in the past about previous Apple products, and claims he spent two weeks playing with an iPhone 5 prototype.

So what was the iPhone 5 like, anyhow?

The article says the much-vaunted iPhone 5 had the rumoured larger screen and slimmer design, but Steve Jobs decided not to go with it. Instead we got the iPhone 4S and a tonne of Siri hype.

The protototype had a 4 inch screen, unlike the traditional 3.5 inches found on extant iPhones. It seems Steve Jobs opposed the idea lest the iOS ecosystem becomes fragmnted, not unlike what's currently happening in Android land.

iPhone 5 slimmer, with Aluminum back à-la iPad 2

The purported iPhone 5 would also resemble the iPad 2 it seems, while also being slimmer than the iPhone 4S.

The source adds that Apple wanted to use "liquid metal" technology had licensed to produce colored iPhones with bodies that retain their color when scratched or dented, much like the current generation Nanos:

Finally, the iPhone 5 prototype was supposed to boast a 10 megapixel camera, and had Siri inculded under a more "mundane" name... You guessed right... Assistant.

So here we are, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 scrapped. What do you make of this story?