Apple iPhone 4S pre-orders top one million on first day

Pre-orders for the Apple iPhone 4S topped one million last Friday, the day when customers could first register to buy one of the new handsets.

Apple and its partner resellers in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Japan began taking orders for the phone at the end of last week but the phone will only hit the stores on Friday this week.

The iPhone 4S looks exactly like its predecessor but is 3g lighter. Apple has stuck with the 3.5in Retina display, but the iPhone 4S boasts new features such as a dual-core A5 chip for faster performance and graphics, an upgraded camera with advanced optics, 1080p HD resolution video recording, and the Siri voice control system.

The number of pre-orders in one day topped those of the iPhone 4 model last year by 400,000.

"We are blown away with the incredible customer response to iPhone 4S," said Philip Schiller, Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing.

"The first day pre-orders for iPhone 4S have been the most for any new product that Apple has ever launched and we are thrilled that customers love iPhone 4S as much as we do," he said.

The strong customer interest in the new handset stands in stark contrast to what has been a less than enthusiastic reception by analysts since the iPhone 4S was unveiled.

Analysts noted that the lack of external casing updates had come as something of a let-down.

AT&T said last Friday that the US carrier had been responsible for 200,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4S.

Meanwhile, Apple and its user community continue to mourn the loss of co-founder and former chief executive Steve Jobs.

Apple's talismanic boss passed away last week, shaking the entire IT industry and causing rival Samsung to delay its own product launch out of respect.