Wireless carrier AT&T hasn't unveiled yet any official numbers regarding the pre-order status of the newly launched iPhone 3G S, the third iteration of Apple's mobile phone, nor on how the sales went during the first day of availability, yet some estimations are already available. AT&T Mobility President Ralph De La Vega stated during an interview with CNBC that the demand exceeded the carrier's expectations and that “hundreds of thousands of customers” already pre-ordered the new model from the operator.

It seems that things are pretty different for the launch of iPhone 3G S in comparison with the previous models, and that the primary factor is the presence of pre-order status for the device. While last year, the thousands of customers De La Vega speaks about were forming lines in front of the stores to purchase an iPhone, this year, only a few were present there. The pre-orders are at a high level and that explains this state of facts in a way, yet there might also be the possibility that the economic slow down has determined some customers to postpone the upgrade to the new iPhone iteration as well.

According to some analysts, the iPhone 3G S should see a strong demand too, yet, when compared to the previous versions, the sales might only rise to half of the number of iPhone 3Gs that were sold last year. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster recently stated that only half a million iPhone 3G S units are expected to be sold during the first weekend of availability, yet the figure might also be influenced by the availability of the device in only a smaller number of countries.

At the same time, the fact that the fresh model comes with only a few feature improvements over the previous version also influenced the performance of the handset. Even so, the total number of iPhones that are expected to be sold during the first quarter of the new model's availability should reach 5 million, with 500,000 iPhone 3G S sold, and 2.5 million of older models shipped in June only. This means that the performance of Apple's handheld will be much better than that seen by Palm Pre, which topped a little more than 50,000 units sold in the first weekend.