In what happens to be the first test to be faced by Apple soon after the death of its dynamic co-founder Steve Jobs, the company Friday began accepting pre-orders for its latest iPhone iteration - the iPhone 4S.

Apple, as well as wireless carriers in the US and a six other countries, started taking online and telephone orders for the iPhone 4S, the US services of which will be provided by AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint Nextel.

And, going by reports, there have already been over 200,000 pre-orders that AT&T has received within 12 hours of the iPhone 4S announcement --- the "extraordinary demand" making the handset's debut on the carrier the most successful one of all the Apple devices thus far.

According to the information shared by a source `in the know' of the proceedings, the pre-orders for iPhone 4S came as Jobs's funeral was scheduled to be held on Friday. As per the source, the reaction to the handset is critical for the Apple; chiefly because it will mark the company's potential to sustain the people's interest in its devices.

Meanwhile, though there has been no official disclosure, however, of the pre-orders that have been received by Verizon and Sprint, Verizon Wireless spokesman did mention that the carrier's systems were "humming very strongly since 3 a. m."; and that the Verizon executives were "pleased with the sales and the ordering process."