14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that the latest iteration of Apple's iPhone, the iPhone 3G S, will become a very popular mobile phone quite soon, as the latest news on the Internet point towards the fact that the users in the US already placed orders for the entire pre-order stocks at the AT&T stores across the country. This means that all those who will pre-order the handset from now on will probably not get their units at launch, but a little later.
According to some voices on the Web, this might point towards the fact that the carrier will also sell out all of its inventories at launch, which is a good sign for Apple. The handset will go on sale this Friday, and will cost $599 unlocked for the 16GB model and $699 for the 32GB version. Those who will get it on contract and those eligible for an upgrade will pay $199 and $299, respectively, while customers to perform early upgrades will have to get out of their pockets $399 for the 16GB model and $499 for the 32GB model.
As it happened with the previous versions, it seems that the hype around the new version will allow Apple and AT&T to see a lot of units sold in a short while, as the device will become available both at Apple stores and at AT&T's. Those who are not in a hurry to have their iPhone 3G S at launch can place pre-orders for the device, though the odds are that they won't see their units this week.
For what it's worth, although the iPhone 3G S comes to the market as an upgrade for the iPhone 3G, it seems that the improvements it carriers along are not as impressive as previously thought. In addition, as we already reported, some of the “novelties” are already present with other devices for quite a long time now, and it's rather questionable why Apple hasn't included them in the phone already. At the same time, it seems that the real upgrade will actually come along with the new iPhone 3.0 OS, and not the new handset, as many might think. Check out our coverage for more details.