iPhone 6 prices
A sign shows the prices of new Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, between HK$10,000-20,000 (US$1,282-2,564), higher than the official retail prices, next to dummies of the phones, at a mall selling smartphones in Hong Kong September 12, 2014. Rumours that the iPhone could be delayed in mainland China until December had begun spreading on the Chinese social network Weibo. Many "huangniu" - salespeople who smuggle iPhones into mainland China from Hong Kong at a price - also started to tout devices for sale from late September. Chinese characters on the sign read "High price to buy". REUTERS/Tyrone Siu (CHINA - Tags: BUSINESS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY)
A sign shows the prices of new Apple iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, between HK$10,000-20,000 (US$1,282-2,564), higher than the official retail prices, next to dummies of the phones, at a mall selling smartphones in Hong Kong September 12, 2014. Rumours that the iPhone could be delayed in mainland China until December had begun spreading on the Chinese social network Weibo. Many "huangniu" - salespeople who smuggle iPhones into mainland China from Hong Kong at a price - also started to tout devices for sale from late September. Chinese characters on the sign read "High price to buy". REUTERS/Tyrone Siu (CHINA - Tags: BUSINESS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY)

The Web sites of Australian carriers Telstra, Vodafone and Optus, and Cupertino-based Apple crashed because of the huge volume of demand for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

After pre-orders for the two models kicked off on Friday at 5 pm, Vodafone's portal was down on and off for about 60 minutes, while it lasted two hours for Optus. A Vodafone spokesman estimated its eStore received about 30,000 calls per minute.

Australia is included in the list of 10 countries which will have simultaneous launches on Sept 19 after the US roll out in Sept 9. The nine other countries are Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK.

Ahead of Sept 19, Aussie telcos are holding on their stock of the flagship smartphone, which explains why Telstra and Virgin have listed the iPhone 6 Plus as out of stock on their Web sites. Vodafone and Optus are not releasing yet the pre-orders for the iPhone 6.

PCWorld reports that in Vodafone, the best-selling model is the 16GB variant of the iPhone 6 in space grey colour. But a company spokesman said that some models are still available for immediate shipment on Friday, but those who ordered the more popular models would have to wait two to four weeks.

Since Apple started to accept pre-orders for the two iPhone models on Friday morning, over 4 million orders have been placed for the first 24 hours. The tech giant said many of those who placed pre-orders have chances of getting their units by Sept 19.

For those who didn't pre-order but want to be one of the first owners of the flagship, they could fall in line on Friday at Apple stores at dawn or in carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless as well as retailers like Best Buy, RadioShack and Target.