From Google News

(Image: Apple)

Apple on Tuesday issued a reminder via a press release that iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c sales begin on Friday. 

In a statement, Apple said its two new smartphones will hit store shelves on Friday at 8 am ET, or 3 am ET online, in a number of countries, not limited to the U.S., Australia, Canada, China, Singapore, and the U.K.

In other words: unless you've been living under a rock for the past week, it's nothing we didn't already know.

While Apple normally releases its pre-order sales before, this time around the company hasn't given anything away in terms of pre-order or sales figures in advance. 

Though initial analyst estimates seem positive, there's still no official word from the Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant. Citi's Glen Yeung pegs iPhone 5c pre-orders as high as 2.2 million since the device on sale last week.

This is the first time since 2009 where pre-order figures have not been dished out to the media. It's typical of Apple to give some level of indication after the first weekend of pre-orders how well the device is doing.

However, the iPhone maker is releasing two new devices designed for different ends of the market. Because only cheaper and economical iPhone 5c has gone up for pre-order, it would be unfair to compare to previous pre-order figures based on this smartphone fragmentation.

At the last iPhone 5 launch, Apple said it received two million pre-orders within the first 24 hours. In line with previous years, delivery times were pushed back from days to weeks.

The iPhone 5s lands with the same design as its predecessor, which is no longer available for sale, and comes with a 64-bit A7 chip, a fingerprint sensor, and in gold, silver, or space grey. The iPhone 5c comes with almost all of the same features as the iPhone 5, but in a range of plastic colored backings, along with an A6 chip and global LTE wireless networking support. 

Both devices land with iOS 7, the latest mobile operating system, featuring a redesigned user interface and a bevy of new features designed with enterprise users in mind.