Apple iPhone 3G S On Sale Today

It's Friday June 19th, and that can only mean one thing: Apple iPhone 3G S day.  Sales of the new Apple smartphone have been taking place across the world for several hours now, and we've already seen the first handset teardown; doors of Apple and AT&T stores in the US open in around fifteen minutes, at 7am. 

Unlike the iPhone 3G launch last July, reports suggest that there hasn't been the same frantic queuing outside stores for this new device.  That's partly because Apple have loosened up their activation procedure this time around; while the iPhone 3G had to be activated in-store (and in fact still does: if you give your old handset to someone new, they'll need to take it into an AT&T store to activate it to their account), the iPhone 3G S is offered with home-delivery and can be activated via iTunes.

However many would-be iPhone 3G S buyers are still caught up in lengthy contracts, and don't qualify for subsidized pricing on the new smartphone.  That, plus a feature-set that's being seen as incremental rather than revolutionary, has led some analysts to predict that sales figures may not match those in the iPhone 3G rush last year.  We're headed to pick up our own iPhone 3G S from Apple's New York flagship store, and several other members of the team are expecting visits from UPS today; keep reading SlashGear for live photos and video!