Of course there have been international shipments already. They surely want to get as much of the initial stock to their retail stores and retail partners for Friday where the queues will be long. This is why I think Apple is being vague about expected delivery dates.
Pre-orders are already in the bag for Apple. So getting handsets to these customers will be less of a priority on launch day. They will want to serve as many customers waiting at retail outlets as possible on Friday. Just because some of these customers may not return at a later date to buy, if the phone is not in stock for them when the buzz and excitement has died down.
