QUEUES HAVE FORMED at Apple stores around the world as fans waited paitiently to be some of the first to snap up the new iPhone 4s which was unveiled last week and went on sale today.

Pre-orders of the new smartphone already reached one million with as many as four million devices expected to be sold this weekend, according to Bloomberg.

The iPhone 4s is on sale today in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan.

The phone will not be in sale in Ireland on 28 October. It will also retail on that date in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

However it is fans in South Korea who may be the most disappointed with no clear indication yet of when the phone will be selling there, Reuters reports. The delay has been linked to Apple’s ongoing patent dispute with rival Samsung.

Still, here’s a few happy fans who queued up outside stories in London and Japan for the new device… or perhaps they were just looking for a new pair of earphones…