I was surprised at the figure, considering the fact that I waited in line Friday with only maybe 10 other people, and the store I was at had at least 20 units in stock. Also, when I visited two different area Apple Stores during the next two days, Apple employees reported that stock levels were still very high, and that the launch was not nearly as crazy as they’d expected, with little to no lines, and no initial sell-outs of stock.

Maybe this is a credit to Apple’s ability to better plan this launch based on their experience with previous generations of hardware, or maybe it’s just an indication that the Canadian public wasn’t impressed with the concessions Rogers and Fido made for existing customers. Many 3G owners I talked to over the weekend, including two Apple Geniuses, said that they’d decided the improvements weren’t enough to merit a pricey upgrade.

Last year, the 3G also sold 1 million units in its opening weekend, but customers weren’t able to pre-order the device, which could account for the smaller lines on launch day. Apple’s stock rose on news of the sales figures, though at the time of this writing it has dropped back down. And that’s despite having as strong a launch this year as the 3G did last year in 21 countries, whereas the 3G S was only available for sale in eight this past weekend, which puts Apple on track for even more impressive numbers as the new handset becomes available in more markets.

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Apple claims the iPhone 3G S is much faster than the iPhone 3G, but is it? Keep reading for our impromptu, unscientific speed tests.

Upgrading

The iPhone 3G S may be a faster device, but the upgrade process is slow. Be prepared when you hook up the new iPhone (to the machine you previously synced your old phone with) to be asked to accept a new license agreement. You will then be asked to enter your Apple ID. Thus, you’ll need an active Internet connection. You’ll likely want to restore from your old iPhone backup and then you’ll have to wait…a very long time. My restore took about 40 minutes.

After the phone data is restored, iTunes will start restoring applications and other content you specify. Unlike previous restores, this one actually kept the icon positions on the iPhone (this may be a new 3.0 feature), but for some reason, it didn’t remember saved passwords for Wi-Fi networks.

One test I recommend running before going any further is a pixel test to confirm there are no stuck pixels on your new phone.

App Speeds

Now comes the fun part: app speed testing. I still had my old iPhone (now a glorified iPod touch!) so I could easily compare how my apps ran on the old phone with the new one. The iPhone 3G was already upgraded to 3.0 (which I recommend before switching to the 3G S), and they were both on the same network.

These are averages after three separate tests. Human error does slightly figure in, as I pressed the stopwatch on one iPhone while my assistant simultaneous pressed the icons on the new iPhone 3G S and the iPhone 3G.

• Scrabble was one of the slowest apps for us. It loaded in 14.5 seconds on the 3G S and 21.4 on the 3G.
• Next test was Rolando: 13.8 seconds on the 3G S and 21.5 on the 3G.
• Trism 3.5 seconds on 3G S and 6.3 on 3G.
• Calendar: 1.6 on 3G S and 2.1 on 3G.
• Weather Underground on Safari: 5.9 and 9.6.
• And finally TwitterFon: 1.6 on 3G S and 3.0 on 3G.

Overall impression after owing it for two hours: The iPhone 3G S is one-third to twice as fast in this blogger’s real-world test. Share your test results in the comments!

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Up here in Toronto, things weren’t nearly as crazy as they were in New York City. I thought they would be, so I showed up at my local Fido at 6:30 a.m. expecting to be maybe tenth or so in line. I was second. And the guy ahead of me had been there since 3:00 a.m. that morning. So, long story short, I got my hands on a brand new 32GB iPhone 3G S, and this is what it looks like.

Check out the gallery at the end of the post for more unboxing photos, though I will warn you, if you’ve seen the 3G, there won’t be much that surprises you. Slightly smaller packaging, though, in keeping with Apple’s attempt to greenify their image.

I was giddy enough about opening the thing up, but actually taking the new camera out for a test drive was what I was really excited about. That, and the speed boost, were the two main reasons I even bothered to pick up a 3G S.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of essentially the same photograph taken with my iPhone 3G and my 3G S. Note the considerable absence of trademark iPhone static in the photo on the right, and the sharp focus despite it being taken at very close range. The tap to focus feature works remarkably well, and I can already tell I’ll be much more of a photographer with the new hardware.

Using the 3G camera

Using the 3G S camera

As for video, here’s a clip I shot of Sackboy, my typewriter, and the window, because my apartment is a mess and nothing else seemed that interesting. The quality is good, considering this is still a phone, after all. I’d even go so far as to say usable for things beyond embarrassing your drunken friends on Facebook, although that’s definitely still an option. I was especially impressed with how efficiently it refocused, and with how it dealt with significant changes in light conditions, as when I recorded the view from my window, and then back to my dingy, poorly lit apartment.

The camera isn’t the only thing that’s new. Speed is much improved. I couldn’t believe how quickly Mail.app downloaded my MobileMe messages. It seemed like at least two or three times faster than when setting up a new account on the 3G. And then there’s the digital compass, which is very accurate and actually fun to watch adjusting in real-time as you turn. Clicking the locate icon in Maps a second time also puts you in to compass mode, which shows which direction you’re facing in addition to where you are, also updated in real time. Check the gallery below for pics of that, and the new camera interface.

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This morning, in many parts of the country, the iPhone 3G S is already being doled out to anxious customers. Despite the bumpy upgrade plan that has been laid ahead of many current iPhone owners, there are still lines at some AT&T stores.

Locally, the retail stores have said that first-come-first-served iPhone sales will open at 9 a.m., after the 7 a.m. pre-order pickups. However here in Denver, after driving past two AT&T retailers with lines of 20-30 outside, I did find one store that was open for business and picked mine up in short order. So a tip if you’re on the West coast — go early, and you may find the AT&T store open already, despite a 9 a.m. announced open time.

As has been mentioned, upgrades were initially the talk of the town (not in a good way), as pricing was essentially only good for new customers or longtime customers who hadn’t upgraded in something close to at least two years. Many of us already on the iPhone bandwagon found ourselves out in the dark, or rather, facing “early upgrade” pricing, which was reminiscent of pre-subsidized iPhone prices. But AT&T lightened up a bit, (possibly to divert some of the negative energy of not allowing tethering or MMS?) and opened up the best pricing model ($199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB) for those eligible for upgrade from launch (today) through about the September 2009 time frame. So if you stopped paying attention after the initial letdown, you may want to recheck that upgrade date and head back in to your local Apple Store or AT&T retailer sooner than later.

Let us know how you fared in picking up your new iPhone 3G S today. Did the pre-order go smoothly? Did you wait in line for the new phone? Did your upgrade pricing fall in line with what you expected? Whatever your experience, we hope it’s a Happy iPhone Day.

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Keep in mind that neither company guaranteed I’d get the phone on Friday, June 19. They used wording that certainly implied it, but they were pretty careful to cover themselves in case they couldn’t make it. Fair enough.

So, it’s been a few days since then, and tomorrow is the big day. How are they doing?

Apple

Despite concerns I had before, they seem on top of it. I received an email Thursday morning:

It looks like I’m all set for Friday. I’m also thinking my concern about their ability to handle my AT&T Family Plan account may be less well-founded, though of course I have no way of knowing unless I show up.

Still, Apple’s ready for me, which is a nice thing to know.

AT&T

As of noon PT Thursday, the status was identical to what it’s been since I ordered a week ago. The entire order was “In Progess.”

There are only four possible statuses (stati?), but one of them is “Canceled” and another is “Partially Shipped” (impossible since I only ordered one thing), so I’m looking for “Shipped.” Bummer.

However, checking back much later in the day (17:30 PT), I see a change.

Status is “Shipped!” I have a ship date of today, and a carrier of FedEx. No tracking number, but still, it looks a lot better. I assume AT&T is not shipping from China, as Apple does, but rather from one of their own stores more or less locally. Therefore an overnight FedEx shipment today could easily arrive by tomorrow.

I’d sure like to see a tracking number, and I’ll keep checking tonight, but we might just have a horse race here, folks.

To be continued…

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The iPhone 3GS will also come with 256MB of RAM, up from 128MB. While not mentioned by the T-Mobile site, the new iPhone is rumored to have upgraded the GPU to the PowerVR SGX, up from the PowerVR MBX. So how does the iPhone 3GS compare with previous devices? Very favorably.

Besides surpassing the iPod touch again, the 600MHz CPU puts the iPhone 3G S on par with the just-released Palm Pre. While the Pre still has a tacit advantage in application switching, opening and closing programs quickly simulates part of that experience, especially on a device where you can only see one program at a time.

The question now becomes whether the iPod touch will again leapfrog the iPhone in CPU speed in the next revision. Even if it does not, the increased speed and memory, and possible GPU upgrade, of Apple’s latest devices will almost certainly impact future software development, fragmenting what has been thus far a unified user base.

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• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
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