Analysts have already predicted that the iPhone 5 could become the best selling consumer gadget ever, with financial analysts even saying that it could boost the country’s gross domestic product.

Apple, which unveiled the iPhone 5 at a press briefing in San Francisco on September 12th, today said that it sold more than two million iPhone 5s in the first 24 hours. That’s more than double the number of iPhone 4s that were sold during its pre-order period.

“iPhone 5 pre-orders have shattered the previous record held by iPhone 4S and the customer response to iPhone 5 has been phenomenal,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing in a press release. “iPhone 5 is the best iPhone yet, the most beautiful product we’ve ever made, and we hope customers love it as much as we do.”

Available in white and black and boasting a bigger screen size, the iPhone 5 will go on sale at 8 a.m. this Friday. The 16 GB model is available for $199, while the 32 GB sells for $299 and 64 GB sells for $399.

And it is not just Apple touting the new sales numbers. AT&T today said that it set a sales record with the iPhone 5, with customers ordering more of the devices than any other phone in its history.

Bloomberg News had previously reported that as many as 10 million new iPhones could be sold this month. Here’s the poll we ran on the iPhone last week:

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