The iPhone 4S is already a hit.
Apple announced Monday that customers purchased more than 4 million new devices over its first weekend of availability, a new record for the company.
Apple unveiled the phone Oct. 4 and put it on sale Oct. 14, this past Friday.
The reactions to it were a mix of wonder and disappointment as some had expected the iPhone 5 but others were more impressed with Siri, its voice-activated personal assistant.
If these first sales figures are any indication, consumers weren't too disappointed.
“iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than 4 million sold in its first weekend —the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing said in a statement. “iPhone 4S is a hit with customers around the world, and together with iOS 5 and iCloud, is the best iPhone ever.”
iOS5 is the latest update of Apple’s operating system, and the Cupertino, Calif.-based company also announced that more than 25 million customers downloaded the operating system in the five days since its release. As for the iCloud, Apple’s take on a cloud computing service, 20 million customers have signed up.
The iPhone 4S, which runs both iOS and the iCloud, will continue to expand to new territories beyond its current markets — the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. By the end of the year, Apple expects to have the product available in 70 countries.
In the U.S. market, it is available on Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, but not T-Mobile – the smallest of the four major networks.
