Apple took more than one million preorders for the iPhone 4S during the first 24 hours the device was available online, the company announced on Monday. This tops the company's previous single-day preorder record of 600,000, a title held by the current iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S itself is still not in consumer hands, though—preorders will go out to customers on Friday, October 14, the same day the iPhone 4S will be available in retail stores.

It hasn't even been a week since Apple announced the existence of the iPhone 4S after months of speculation over whether the company would release a radically redesigned "iPhone 5" or not. As such, the intro of the iPhone 4S—which looks the same as an iPhone 4 but has a faster processor, better camera, and the "intelligent assistant" Siri—was a disappointment for some who were expecting some new eye candy along with updated specs.

That disappointment seemed to translate into pessimistic expectations for the iPhone 4S, but as is often the case, the real world's reaction seems to have diverged from that of the geek world. As noted by Macworld, Apple, AT&T, and Verizon all exhausted their supplies of preorder iPhone 4Ss near the end of Friday, with AT&T boasting that it sold 200,000 devices within the first 12 hours of availability. (Sprint also reported that it sold out of the 16GB version of the iPhone 4S.)

If you're interested in obtaining an iPhone 4S on launch day, it now looks like your best bet is to do the old waiting in line schtick at an Apple retail store. Just keep your fingers crossed for nice weather (there sure won't be any in Chicago that day) and a minimal instance of homeless people asking you for cigarettes while you wait.