Record-Selling iPhone 4S Under Legal Threat

Apple has announced it sold more than four million iPhone 4S handsets in the first three days after its launch. However, legal action could put a halt to sales in Japan and Australia.

Apple iPhone 4s: Fastest Selling iPhone to Date

According to reports, Apple racked up the four million sales this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday, making this the fastest-selling iPhone model. While it won't keep that pace up as the initial rush winds down, there's still a good chance it could set a world record.

Guiness World of Records is monitoring sales across the next two to three months, paying particular attention to daily averages. If Apple can keep that figure above 156,000/day it will beat its own record set by the iPad 2 as the fastest-selling consumer electronics device. The title was previously held by Microsoft's motion control gaming system Kinect, which was at around 100,000/day across its first two months of availability.

Worldwide Expansion Underway

Apple also revealed that 21 million owners of older devices have upgraded to the latest version of its mobile operating system, iOS5. It's also signed up 20 million people to iCloud, a service that lets users back up data from their devices on Apple's servers, rather than on their own computer. (Source: apple.com)

At the moment, the iPhone 4S is available in seven countries: the US, Canada, France, Germany, UK, Australia and Japan, with plans for release in another 22 countries by the end of the month and a total of 70 countries by the end of the year.

Apple, Samsung Battle Patents in Court

Sales in Japan and Australia, however, are now under threat due to a lawsuit by Samsung claiming that Apple has breached its patents.

The lawsuit also covers the iPhone 4 and iPad 2, and follows a similar legal bid in France last week. Samsung is asking the courts to put a temporary freeze on sales in the countries until its patent case is heard.

The lawsuits are the latest in a long series of courtroom exchanges between the two companies. Apple has already been granted injunctions blocking sales of Samsung's own Galaxy Tab device in parts of Europe, including the Netherlands.

In the US, a judge recently ruled that in principle the Galaxy breaches Apple's registered American patents. However, Samsung has been allowed to continue US sales pending a court verdict confirming those patents are legally valid. (Source: zdnet.com)