An avalanche of pre-orders for the 16 GB model of Apple's new iPhone 4S has forced Sprint to stop accepting online purchases at its Web site. However, the wireless 
carrier said the phone will be available for sale in Sprint stores nationwide beginning Friday morning, when it goes on sale in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.
AT&T 's Web site promises to ship online pre-orders of the 16 GB iPhone 4S in 21 to 28 days, whereas new pre-orders for the 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB models placed online at Verizon's Web site are expected to ship within two weeks.
Apple received more than 1 million iPhone 4S pre-orders within the first 24 hours when it began accepting online purchases last Friday.
"While it is still early, this data point increases our confidence that iPhone 4S has the momentum to meet or exceed our 25-million-unit estimate [for the fourth quarter of this year]," said Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster and Andrew Murphy.
Piper Jaffray's holiday season estimate represents a 77 percent increase "from the 14.1 million iPhones Apple sold in the September 2010 quarter, when the iPhone 4 launch sales hit," Munster and Murphy wrote in an investor note. The investment firm also expects Apple will sell 111 million iPhones overall in calendar year 2012.
Apple's Pied-Piper Strategy
The new iPhone 4S is widely expected to be a huge hit among younger smartphone users. In a recent Piper Jaffray survey of students, 38 percent of the respondents indicated they intend to purchase an iPhone within the next six months -- an all-time high for the investment firm's semiannual surveys.
"It is clear to us that Apple has retained the 'cool factor' among high school students across America," Munster and Murphy wrote. "We believe the teen demographic is a critical component of long-term growth in the mobile market, and Apple is taking its lead in music and leveraging it in the mobile category."
And in advance of Apple's iPhone 4S unveiling Oct. 4, Piper Jaffray surveyed a small sample of U.S. mobile phone users overall, of which 64 percent indicated they intended to buy an iPhone when they purchase a new handset. What's more, 36 percent of the survey's respondents said they were waiting specifically for the availability of Apple's next-generation handset. (continued...)
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