iPhone 3G S enjoys promising launch weekend sales

As you undoubtedly know, the iPhone 3G S launched last Friday across Apple's primary territories, and early estimates are suggesting that launch weekend sales have been very positive.

Around this time last year Apple managed to push just over a million units of the iPhone 3G, and although even the manufacturer is unlikely to be expecting the hardware update to beat those sales, it's certainly not far behind.

There are no official figures in yet, but AT&T spokesman Michael Coe has been very excited about sales expectations based on pre-orders, saying: "AT&T sold hundreds of thousands who are pre-order process prior to the launch, which exceeded our own expectations for iPhone 3G S."

Over here in the UK, however, O2 has stated that its high street stores had sold more iPhone 3G S units by lunchtime than it did during the entire day on the 3G launch day.

One promising rumour suggests that activation of 3G S handsets has being very slow, due to the excessive strain on Apple's system. Presumably, having sold a million iPhones this time last year, Apple was prepared to receive a similar number of activation requests.

Although the recent release of the 3.0 software update will be adding to this strain, there's every chance this could be an early indicator that the iPhone 3G S sales have exceeded expectations. We'll keep an eye on any sales reports emerging in the next few days, and let you know.