San Francisco  - Apple's latest edition of the iPhone is matching the popularity of its predecessors.

The company, and its exclusive US carrier, AT&T, said Monday that pre-orders of the phone had sold out, and that customers could face a wait of a week or two after launch day on Friday to get their coveted gizmos.

Apple announced the launch of the faster, larger capacity and more capable iPhone 3G S on June 8 and gave customers the option of pre- ordering them over the internet. A 16-gigabyte capacity phone costs 199 dollars with a two-year contract, while the 32GB version costs 299 dollars.

Apple and AT&T have not revealed how many pre-ordered iPhone 3G S handsets were sold, and some industry watchers think the companies will have a hard time matching the iPhone 3G's launch, which sold more than a million units in three days when it launched last year. (dpa)