Apple has confirmed a record-breaking first weekend of sales for its new iPhone 4S, shifting over 4 million units in three days. In a statement, Apple’s senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing. Philip Schiller, said that the 4 million figure was “the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days.”

The new device went on sale in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK last Friday. It will launch in a further 22 countries on 28 October and more than 70 countries by year-end.

US operator AT&T’s website said Friday it had “already activated a record number of iPhones on our network – and is on-track to double our previous record for activations on a single day.”

Rival operator Sprint Nextel – which is seen to have taken a risk in paying Apple’s not-insignificant subsidies to sell the iPhone 4S – published a release on the same day saying it had its “best ever day of sales in retail, web and telesales for a device family in Sprint history with the launch of iPhone 4S and iPhone 4”.

The device launch coincided with the availability of iOS5, Apple’s new operating system. Apple said that iOS5 – which became available on the 12 October – had been downloaded by 25 million users to date – with 20 million of these subscribing to iCloud, the platform’s new cloud-based synching and storage service.

Localytics, the analytics firm, said yesterday that one-in-three eligible Apple devices had already upgraded to iOS5. The firm said that iPad 2 and iPhone 4 device users were most enthusiastic with 36 percent and 35 percent of users, respectively, having made the upgrade already.