The three major US carriers who will offer the phone — Sprint, AT&T and Verizon — each said yesterday they had already sold out of the iPhone 4S on pre-order.
Earlier this week, Apple proclaimed this generation iPhone its fastest-selling one, with more than a million sold on pre-order following last weekend.
While it had been available for online ordering since last Friday, stores don’t start selling the device until today.
The 4S represents an upgrade from the iPhone 4, but not the evolutionary leap many Apple gadget enthusiasts anticipated with an as-yet launched iPhone 5.
Apple also rolled out its new iCloud service and the latest iteration of its mobile software, iOS 5, this week — but some users were less than thrilled.