Apple fans queue outside the Apple Store in Boston early this morning to buy the hit new iPhone handset

Carmen Shippy, the first person in line to buy the newly-released Apple iPhone 4S, cheers with staff as the store opens to sell the device at 8am at an Apple Store in Clarendon, Virginia

The launch attracted a fair number of weird and wonderful characters – this person (name and gender unknown) poses with newly purchased iPhone 4S smartphones outside the Apple Store in Regents Street, London

Leap year: A happy customer jumps into the arms of an Apple employee outside the Apple Store in Covent Garden after buying an iPhone 4S

Apple’s new smartphone has already broken the pre-order record set by iPhone 4.

And queues have been snaking around Apple stores all over the world.

 

Tokyo and Australia got the phone first, due to time differences. In Tokyo hundreds jostled to gain entry, with fans glued to iPhones, iPads and Macbook laptops as they waited for stores to open.

Waiting game: iPhone fans in Toyko queued patiently, but it was clearly a tiring business for one customer

One in five BlackBerry phone users is considering switching to another supplier because of the service problems which hit millions of people this week, according to a study today.

A survey of more than 1,000 BlackBerry customers by shopping comparison website Kelkoo found that 19 per cent are thinking about moving to another manufacturer, 42 per cent will consider changing later and eight per cent said they have bought a new mobile phone already.

Kelkoo said that with today’s launch of the iPhone 4S already boasting pre-orders of over one million, this week’s service issues could not have come at a worse time for BlackBerry, giving users a ‘tempting ship to jump to’.

Research among another 3,000 people found that seven out of 10 who were planning to get a BlackBerry in the future admitted they would need some reassurance from the manufacturer as they would be put off by the recent problems.

Four out of five consumers said they were put off choosing a handset from a manufacturer that has experienced major service problems.

Chris Simpson, chief marketing officer at Kelkoo, said: ‘This week has been incredibly difficult for BlackBerry users worldwide. However, BlackBerry offers a market-leading product with a unique service, which nearly a third of consumers admit they will not find with any other manufacturer.

‘As such, it has a loyal following and this will stand it in good stead to retain customers. Whilst our research highlights that some consumers intend to jump the BlackBerry ship, it could be a very different picture in the coming months when this week’s issues become a distant memory.’

 

The ‘Error 3200′ message confused users – others reported slow download speeds and glitches once the new iOS installed

‘The battery life  appears to be about the same as iPhone 4 – Apple says it’s better: it looks even’

The new software download is intended to bring older iPhones in line with the functions of iPhone 4S – including a new instant-messaging app, iMessage, and the iCloud service which shares music between your Apple devices

‘It’s like having the intern of my dreams at my beck and call, organising my life’

Macworld said, ‘The iPhone 4S has speed, a great camera, some cool voice-recognition features, and the same beautiful industrial design that was introduced in the iPhone 4. In the end, the iPhone 4S follows Apple’s recent trajectory of iPhone releases: It’s an object of some appeal to people who last upgraded their phones a year ago, and over the next year a great many of them will find it worthwhile to upgrade to the iPhone 4S.’

The Wall Street Journal said, ‘Some may be content to skip the new hardware and just enjoy the software and cloud features with older models. But those buying the phone will likely be happy.’

T3 said, ‘It may not be what people were hoping for – whatever that looked like – but the iPhone 4S is now the best phone from the Apple stable. A powerful mobile device with a great OS and some cutting-edge tech to boot.’

Stephen Fry said in The Guardian, ‘Once again Apple is taking a lead and asking a lot of its competitors. I wish those competitors luck, for the better all smartphones are, the happier I am. If Steve Jobs’s true legacy is that the devices every other company makes are so, so much better than they otherwise would have been, I don’t think he would mind one bit.’

Techcrunch said, ‘Apple focused on the other thing they do best: refining already great products to make them better. The iPhone 4 was a great product. The best smartphone ever made. Now it cedes that title to the iPhone 4S.’

Wired said, ‘There will undoubtedly be smartphones with faster processors, or more megapixels to their cameras, or high-speed 4G connectivity, or bigger, better resolution displays, but it’s difficult to imagine any of them competing with the joined-up ecosystem Apple now offers.’

Bloomberg said, ‘With the iPhone’s continuing advantage in number of apps (500,000 and counting), its arrival on the Sprint network and its ability to function as a world phone, the 4S doesn’t leave many holes for the competition to plug.