Today is October 7th, which means that the deluge has begun – folks can now officially pre-order their brand new iPhone 4S for October 14th.

The three carriers who will offer the new phone, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have all opened the ordering up on their websites. Apple.com is also allowing pre-orders.

The pre-ordering went live around 3 am on Friday.

The device itself will start at $199 for the 16 GB model and jump to $399 for the 64 GB model. The 32 GB middle child will run you $299. As far as the specific carriers go, Sprint is the only one who is currently offering an unlimited data plan. Sprint unlimited data and talk will cost $109.99 a month. AT&T plans range from $54.99 to $134.99 and Verizon plans range from $69.99 to $169.99. For a detailed look at the rate breakdown, Apple has this chart.

Should you spring for the new iPhone 4S? If you missed all the hoopla over its launch, here’s a quick recap on its specs:

On the outside, it looks the same as the iPhone 4. The changes come on the inside – a new dual-core A5 processor that should double the speed of the device and a new 8 MP camera that is able to take some pretty impressive photos. It will come pre-installed with iOS 5, which incorporates Siri, Apple’s voice assistant program that supposedly delivers precise control over texting, searching, and scheduling through speech.

It’s been reported that both AT&T and Apple have been having problems processing all the pre-orders this morning, so it looks like people are anxious to get their hands on the new device despite some of the derision it received upon its unveiling.