Puts things into perspective
Apple has announced that the new iPhone 4S received more than a million pre-orders in the first 24 hours of it being made available.
The previous single-day pre-order record was 600,000 for the iPhone 4, so the 4S is, initially at least, 66 percent more popular than its hugely successful predecessor.
"We are blown away with the incredible customer response to iPhone 4S," said Phil Schiller, Apple's product marketing SVP. "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."
For many the launch of the iPhone 4S was a bit of an anticlimax, as it uses exactly the same chassis as the iPhone 4. Furthermore most of the enhancements, such as the A5 processor, were widely anticipated. There has been much talk about an iPhone 5 prior to the launch but, in the event, the only twist was provided by the Siri voice recognition feature.
This sense of anticlimax prompted widespread speculation that Apple had lost its mojo, which was compounded by the death of its founder Steve Jobs just a day later. These figure vindicate Apple's decision to go for an incremental phone launch, although it's impossible to know to what degree sentiment around Jobs has added to people's desire to own an Apple product.
