With pre-orders generally selling out ahead of launch, the iPhone 4S was already in position to put up big numbers today, and two of its three American carriers — AT&T and Sprint — are saying as much in a pair of statements released this afternoon. For its part, Sprint says that it has seen "its best ever day of sales in retail, web and telesales for a device family in Sprint history," while AT&T alleges that it has activated a record number of iPhones on its airwaves today and is on track to double its previous single-day activation record.

Of course, there have been intermittent reports of activation delays for buyers on AT&T today, so record activation numbers certainly don't come as a surprise. Sprint, meanwhile, has previously touted record single-day sales for the Evo 4G only to pull back on its verbiage a few days later — but seeing how this is Sprint's very first iPhone, the claim seems pretty believable this time around.