On this day in 2011, Apple's iPhone 4S went on sale in the United States and several other countries, MacRumors and CBC News reported.

The phone had a faster processor, a better camera and a new voice assistant called Siri, both outlets said.

Siri was the feature many buyers were eager to try, MacRumors reported. Apple included many humorous answers in Siri, the site said. But some early users found that Siri had trouble with certain accents.

The launch came just over a week after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died, CBC News reported. Many fans said the event felt like a tribute to him, and some joked that "4S" stood "for Steve."

Thousands of people lined up before dawn, CBC reported. In London, nearly 1,000 people waited outside the Apple Store in Covent Garden, and about 200 were at Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York when it opened. In Edmonton, Canada, dozens of people camped out overnight.

Steve Wozniak, who started Apple with Jobs in a garage in 1976, was first in line at a store in Los Gatos, California, CBC said.

The line at the Fifth Avenue store was shorter than at the iPhone 4 launch, MacRumors reported, citing AppleInsider.

Apple took more than 1 million pre-orders, both outlets reported. CBC said that easily beat the 600,000 first-day pre-orders for the iPhone 4 a year earlier. Analysts expected opening-weekend sales of 3 million to 4 million phones, CBC reported. MacRumors said predictions ranged from 2 million to 4 million.

The phone also went on sale that day in Australia, France, Germany, Japan and Britain, CBC said.

Some customers and investors were disappointed that Apple did not release a more dramatically new model, CBC reported.

What we know: The iPhone 4S with Siri went on sale Oct. 14, 2011.
What we don't: How many phones sold on the first day, a figure these sources don't give.