Want a new iPhone 4S in your hands at the earliest possible date? You've missed it. Take a look at the U.S. Apple Online Store and you'll see that shipping estimates are now listed as "1 to 2 weeks." Before the pre-order stock for launch day delivery was sold out, the site stated that iPhones would be delivered on launch day, Friday, October 14.

That means if you didn't pre-order your phone already, according to MacRumors, you won't be one of the first to get it on launch day. All is not lost, though — you can always wait until Friday and then stand in line at an Apple store. In fact, we're told there are already three people waiting in line in front of the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in New York City, two of whom have been there for 12 days.

As we noticed in the pre-dawn hours of Friday morning, Apple's online store was jammed and responding at a snail's pace, and only one of us here at Mashable was able to pre-order an iPhone 4S right away. The rest of us went through a frustrating process of selecting a phone, entering all of the necessary data and then were met with an unfortunate message telling us we would have to come back later.

That's not surprising, because AT&T reported that during the first 12 hours of pre-ordering, which started on Friday morning at about 3:40 a.m. ET, the company had taken 200,000 pre-orders. That's a lot of traffic. AT&T is calling this the most successful debut yet for the iPhone. And that's only AT&T reporting; that number doesn't include those pre-orders for iPhones from Verizon and Sprint.

If you are one of those who was offered a chance to reserve an iPhone rather than pre-order because of the unusually high volume of traffic as dawn broke across the United States on Friday, you'll have until 5:00 PM PT Saturday to confirm that pre-order, or you'll lose your place in line and might not have your phone delivered by next Friday, October 14.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 4S: 4 Reasons to Upgrade

This could be a tragedy for some, but for others it might not make any difference at all. Seriously, are we such childish fanboys that we can't even wait an extra few days for a gadget?

Well, yes. I'd like to think the only reason I'm so driven to have an iPhone 4S on the very first day is because I'm a journalist and must quickly form an opinion and write about the device. Alas, I admit — I simply must have it as early as possible, regardless of whether I'm a gadget reviewer or not. It's embarrassing. How about you?