Apple sold 4 million of its new iPhone 4S phones in just 3 days, a rate of almost 4,000 units sold per minute and a world record for sales of any electronic device.

 iPhone 4S Release Date: Apple Sets Records with iPhone Sales 4M Units in 3 Days

The new smartphone, launched on Oct. 14, managed to more than double the sales during the previous iPhone 4 launch. 

Apple's revised How-to-Buy page told customers in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada, France and Germany that the iPhone 4S would be "available in store by reservation only." Potential buyers were told to check inventory at their local stores after 9 p.m. local time and make a reservation.

This is two great successes from Apple in the course of a week. Apple also had an overwhelming response to its new iOS 5 software with 25 million customers downloading the software since the official release on Oct. 12.

Twenty million customers have signed up for iCloud, Apple’s remote storage server, which is featured in iOS 5.

The iPhone 4S was pre-ordered by 600,000 in the first 24 hours, according to Apple.

AT&T, Sprint and Verizon will all feature the iPhone 4S on their networks. Apple’s launch on all three of those top three carriers is one reason for the device’s overhwhelming success, Sprint having been added to the outlets this year.

All previous iPhones launched on AT&T only.