iPhone 4S pre-orders sell out

While many said they would not rush to buy Apple’s new iPhone 4S, colossal US telecom AT&T says that over 200 000 pre-orders of the new smartphone have been confirmed since it began offering the phone on its site.

The iPhone 4S is the latest updated model of the iPhone and was released last week, a day before the death of Steve Jobs. In the United States, the iPhone 4S will go on sale on October 14. Other countries include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK.

Apple’s US online store says that shipping estimates are at one to two weeks. This indicates that any customer who wants to pre-order the phone for day-one purchase is out of luck. Apple’s online store had to resort to temporary reservations thanks to the strain placed on the site during initial pre-order phase.

All users who received a reservation from Apple had until 5pm PST on Saturday to both return and complete the orders in order to keep their reserved phones.

AT&T says that the iPhone 4S is “the most successful iPhone launch we’ve ever had” and that “it boasted an extraordinary demand.”

During the ordering process, a message stated, “To get iPhone 4S as soon as October 14, AT&T retail stores will have inventory available for eligible customers while supplies last.”

This incident closely mirrors the AT&T iPhone 4 sell-out of last year, where the telecom ran out of phones during its first 24 hours of online pre-orders.

AT&T does not hold the monopoly on iPhone 4S sales. Sprint and Verizon Wireless had also opened up their sites for pre-orders, but declined to comment on the late Friday sales figures. What is known is that Sprint sold out of the budget-priced 16GB iPhone 4S models, with the 32GB and 64GB models still available for purchase.