In a press release posted on Apple.com -- the company's first public statement since Steve Jobs's death -- Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said he was "blown away" by the consumer response to the iPhone 4S.
Apple began taking pre-orders on the phone Friday, three days after the company introduced it in a press conference and two days after Jobs died. The iPhone 4S will go on sale in the U.S. at 8 a.m. local time on Friday, Oct. 14. The phone comes in black and white and will be available for a suggested retail price of $199 for the 16 GB model, $299 for the 32 GB version and $399 for the 64 GB model.
The strong pre-orders come after some, who expected an iPhone 5, were underwhelmed by Apple's iPhone 4S announcement. However, Apple's deviation from its usual iPhone shipping schedule -- new phones have been announced every summer since 2007 until now -- has created pent-up demand for the device.