Apple announced the iPhone 4S today. It’s not the iPhone 5, and it looks a lot like the iPhone 4, but at least it comes in white right off the bat. It also has some other nice features that the iPhone 4 doesn’t – namely Siri and a beefed up camera. And of course it will launch with Apple’s new operating system iOS 5.

The most significant part of today’s iPhone news, however, is that the device is coming to Sprint (in addition to AT&T and Verizon). This should be huge for both Sprint and Apple.

Apple will sell a lot of iPhone 4S devices. There’s little doubt about that, but how many iPhone 4 users will upgrade, rather than waiting for the iPhone 5 or whatever the next version is. Are the new features enough? The iPhone 4 still gets iOS 5. These users aren’t going to missing out on iCloud or anything.

The iPhone 4S is so similar in appearance, you have to wonder how many will make the leap. Again, there will no doubt be quite a few, but how many more would have if Apple launched an iPhone 5 with a whole new look, and packed with revolutionary new features not available on the iPhone 4?

The Sprint news, however, will likely mean a whole lot of new iPhone users, simply because Sprint has never been able to offer an iPhone to its customers. That doesn’t mean those customers didn’t wish that Sprint offered one. In fact, the lack of an iPhone has probably cost Sprint quite a few customers.

Likewise, there will just be that may more people buying iPhones over Android devices and others.

Here’s some Twitter reaction to the Sprint iPhone news:

The iPhone 4S will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model and $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the new 64GB model.*** iPhone 4S will be available from the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores and through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPhone 4S will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK on Friday, October 14 and customers can pre-order their iPhone 4S beginning Friday, October 7.

IT will roll out worldwide to 22 more countries by the end of October including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.