When products fly off the shelves at Apple, they sometimes take flight before they even reach the confines of the store itself. That’s what happened last week after the Cupertino-based computer company announced the latest version of its game-changing smartphone. The iPhone 5, the most recent version of the device, was announced midweek (Sept. 12 to be precise) and pre-orders were taken two days later starting at midnight on Sept. 14. Note that not a single iPhone 5 had yet made it to any Apple Store. But within an hour of pre-order sales, the company had completely exhausted its supply of units. Customers had crippled Apple servers trying to reserve a device online.

The supply was two million phones. If you left your calculator at home, here’s the bottom line: The company sold about 1,390 phones a minute — but who’s counting?

The folks at Apple certainly are. They issued a press release quickly, boasting that sales of the iPhone 5 were more than double the previous record of one million held by iPhone 4S.

They also acknowledged that demand for iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply and while the majority of pre-orders will be delivered to customers on September 21, many are scheduled to be delivered in October.

This is for a phone that starts at $199 for a 16 GB model in either white & silver or black & slate. The price is $299 for the 32GB model and $399 for the 64GB model.

The iPhone 5 is available from the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores, and through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, select Best Buy, RadioShack, Target and Walmart stores and some Apple Authorized Resellers.

An iPhone 4S, the most recent previous generation of the phone, will be available for $99 and iPhone 4 will be available for free with a two-year contract with one of the phone’s carriers.

iPhone 5 will roll out worldwide to 22 more countries on September 28, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

What are customers getting with the upgrade?

The iPhone 5 has a bigger screen — four inches measured diagonally — that allows room for another row of icons and lets widescreen movies fit better. Previous iPhone models had a 3.5-inch screens.

The calendar will now show five days at a time instead of just three.  The phone is also thinner and weighs less than previous models. It has a faster processor, an improved camera, more battery life and global 4GLTE connectivity. The phone’s software will be version 6 of IOS that has some enhanced features.

Finance may start to get pressure from employees and execs for an upgrade, especially since the Black Berry franchise has fallen on hard times in recent years. Talk with your IT team to find out if its ready to support this new and extraordinarily popular device.

Tags: iPhohne, record, sales, sellout, supply