But Daddy, I Want an iPhone 4 NOW!

This was to be expected, I suppose, given the massive number of pre-orders for the device: After just a few hours on the market, Apple’s (AAPL) new iPhone 4 has already sold out at a number of Apple stores. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster called 20 Apple stores this morning and found nine sold out, with the remainder expecting to be sold out by the end of the day.

“Early signs from interest at Apple stores, coupled with Apple’s announcement of over 600,000 pre-orders, leave us increasingly confident in our June and Sept. quarter iPhone unit estimates (both at 9.5 million),” Munster said in a research note. “Our best guess is that Apple reserves about half of the units for pre-orders (mail delivery and in-store pick up) and half for in-store purchases (walk-ins), implying total sales for the launch (including the 600,000 already announced for online and first three days) of between 1.0m to 1.5m. This would be the biggest iPhone launch (compare to 3GS at 1 million).”