With the launch of the Flip video camera in May 2007, the camcorder market has never been the same. Flip brought video creation and sharing to the masses, which meant even more footage of cats riding skateboards. (We can't thank them enough for that.)

Consumers embraced the convenience, simplicity, portability, and affordability of Flip's "point and shoot" video camera. It has few buttons, records video on an internal chip, and uploads footage to a computer through a USB key that "flips" out of the camera. Software loaded on the device transfers clips seamlessly to the Web. Models start at $150.

Soon the device was grabbing market share from Sony (SNE) and JVC — more than two million of the cameras have been sold — and earlier this year networking giant Cisco (CSCO) snapped up Flip maker Pure Digital for $590 million.

But there's a new rival on the scene: Apple iPhone 3GS, introduced in early June, boasts a video capture function. And some technophiles are asking if Flip's days as the No. 1 pocket video recorder are numbered. More

The still photos of the iPhone 3GS debut in Singapore Friday (see here) don't quite do justice to the magnitude of the event.

To get a better feel for what it was like to be there that night, check out the video pasted below. It was shot by customer No. 10 — a student named Satya — with his new phone as he walked back through lines that seem to go on forever.

SingTel, Apple's (AAPL) local carrier, estimated that 1,500 to 2,000 people would turn out that night. Satya, who shot his video two hours before closing time, put the number at closer to 3,000.

Thanks to reader Don from Palo Alto for the tip.

See also:

• Thousands crowd iPhone launch in Singapore

Steve Jobs is not the only one who knows a thing or two about event marketing. Check out Damian Koh's photos of the launch of the new iPhone 3GS in Singapore Friday night.

By 8 p.m., according to SingTel, Apple's (AAPL) exclusive local carrier, between 1,500 and 2,000 eager customers had gathered outside company headquarters for the festivities, with many more expected over next two days.

"On average," executive vice president Yuen Kuan Moon told Channel NewsAsia, "a customer during the peak period will queue between anywhere for three to four hours."

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There were only four customers in the queue to buy an iPhone 3GS when I showed up at Apple's (AAPL) flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan Tuesday afternoon for what I'd been told would be the lunch-hour crush.

This is where I'd hoped to see iPhone demand collide with iPhone supply. I saw nothing of the sort.

Although Apple's availability widget shows red "sold out" lights for selected models in every state where Apple has retail outlets (see here), there seemed to be plenty of product on hand today.

Less than three weeks after the launch of the iPhone 3GS, the lines that once snaked in front of the big glass cube had dwindled to the point where the customers that showed up could fit comfortably between a few retractable belt posts within the store itself.

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AT&T's (T) widely leaked "best-ever sales day" memo ticking off the records set on June 19, 2009 — the day it began selling the iPhone 3GS — is packed with superlatives but notably lacking in numbers. (See memo below.)

Unlike Apple (AAPL), which reports on a quarterly basis how many iPhones it has shipped, AT&T keeps its unit sales figures close to its chest.

The new memo trumpets the fact that iPhone sales on June 19 "exceeded sales recorded on 2008's iPhone launch day," without saying how many phones it sold on either day.

But by extrapolating from previous quarters and reading between the lines, we can make some rough estimates. Here are the data points as we understand them:

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Here's an interesting measure of how effectively Apple (AAPL) can whip the tech world into a frenzy — even without Steve Jobs there to stir things up.

According to a report issued Monday by Nielsen Online, "anticipatory buzz" in May drew more than 55.7 million unique visitors to Apple's website — more than double that of Hewlett Packard (HPQ) and 25 times the site for Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox.

The buzz got even louder in June with the unveiling of the iPhone 3GS. At one point between June 8 and June 9, nearly 0.6% of the nearly 100 million blogs, groups, boards, social networks and other consumer generated media that Nielsen tracks were talking about the new device. According to the report:

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The iPhone availability widget is back — new and improved — and it's showing spot shortages of selected iPhones at Apple (AAPL) stores across the United States.

The availability tool, which appears on Apple's website in times of scarcity, was last seen in the summer of 2008, when demand for the iPhone 3G was heavy and supplies short.

When it reappeared on Friday, only 29 of Apple's 257 stores were displaying shortages of any iPhones, according to IFOAppleStore, a website that keeps close tabs of Apple's retail business.

By Sunday morning, however, there were red "sold out" lights for selected 3GS models in all but six states.

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Those 1 million iPhone GSs sold last weekend represent a "remarkable achievement," writes RBC Capital's Mike Abramsky in a note to clients issued early Tuesday, especially considering the new iPhone's relatively narrow international distribution (8 countries vs. 21 last year).

But according to Abramsky, it's the old iPhone 3G — newly priced at $99 — not the new 3GS, that will drive global sales this fiscal year.

"While early buyers appeared to favor the iPhone S," he writes, "the $99 iPhone is expected to drive 30-40% momentum improvement, in countries like UK, Germany, France, and other parts of Europe and Asia where phones are more highly subsidized (on contract) and prepaid is popular (e.g. ~60% prepay in UK, ~90% in emerging markets like India)."

Abramsky expects Apple to sell 20 million iPhones in fiscal 2009, 64.5% of them the older 3G models. By his estimates the new 3GS won't dominate sales until fiscal 2010, when he expects Apple to sell 30 million iPhones, roughly 60% of them 3GSs. See chart and spreadsheet below.

On Monday, Apple announced that it sold 1 million iPhones 3GSs in three days of sales. The company has not released the number of iPhones 3Gs sold since that device's price was lowered to $99 from $199 on June 8.

He's back.

According to CNBC's Jim Goldman, at least two Apple (AAPL) employees have told him they saw Steve Jobs at the company's Cupertino, Calif., campus on Monday.

Jobs took a medical leave in January to deal with what he initially described as a hormonal imbalance, but which was apparently serious enough to require a liver transplant.

For nearly six months, Apple spokespeople would say only that they looked forward to their chief executive returning to Apple before the end of June.

He seems to have made it back to One Infinite Loop with more than eight days to spare.

Jobs was quoted early Monday in a press release announcing the sale of more than 1 million iPhone 3GSs. It was his first public statement since Jan. 21.

That press release also signaled a typographical change in the name of the new iPhone — from 3G S to 3GS — a small but welcome improvement in which some Apple watchers thought they saw the master micromanager's hand.

It's not clear yet whether Jobs' appearance Monday was a one-time thing or if he is planning to come back to work full time.

Apple has not yet returned a request for comment or confirmation.

UPDATE: USA Today reports that Jobs has been in contact with Apple employees in the past few weeks via e-mail and Reuters says one of its reporters spotted Jobs leaving the campus Monday:

"[He was] dressed in his trademark black turtleneck and jeans. He walked out chatting with another person before climbing into a black car that then drove off."