Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) says that it sold 4 million of its new iPhone 4S model in the first weekend of sales.

Apple launched the phone in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. on Friday. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in a statement that the sales were "more than double" that of the first three days of iPhone 4 sales and the most ever seen for a phone launch. (See Apple Boasts 4M iPhone 4S Sales.)

The phone is available from AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Verizon Wireless and -- for the first time ever -- Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) in the U.S. The iPhone 4S was the best-selling phone launch for the CDMA carrier ever, according to Sprint.

In addition to its record iPhone 4S activations, Apple also reported that more than 25 million customers have already downloaded iOS 5 -- its latest mobile operating system -- in the first five days of its release. More than 20 million customers, meanwhile, have signed up for iCloud, Apple's new free service that updates content across a user's Apple devices from the cloud. (See Apple's iCloud Lets Wi-Fi Take the Strain and Apple Finds Friends, Synchs With iCloud.)

It's not, however, all record bustin' and store lines for Apple this Monday. Separately, Samsung Corp. took its legal fight against the iPhone to more countries across the globe. Bloomberg reports that the vendor is now trying to stop sales of the 4S in Australia and Japan. (See Samsung Hears From T-Mobile & Steve Jobs.)

Why this matters
The tech press and blogosphere, which had been expecting an iPhone 5, gave the iPhone 4S launch a somewhat cooler response than previous Apple debuts. The record sales show that consumers across the globe are still in love with the iPhone and the company that late CEO Steve Jobs created. (See Apple Chairman Steve Jobs Is Dead at 56.)

For more
See more on the iPhone 4S launch below:

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile