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It has only been a day but Apple and AT&T have managed to push 600,000 iPhone 4 units out the door, so to speak. The device isn’t even on sale yet and over half a million are spoken for after just a day of pre-orders filled with glitches, woes and frustration. Hell, some people even waited in line only for an opportunity to wait in line all over again to secure the highly anticipated smartphone. Due to this insanely high demand for the iPhone 4, AT&T has decided to stop all pre-orders so that it can actually fill the requested orders for June 24.
AT&T is also proudly saying that the demand for the Apple handset is 10 times that of the demand for the iPhone 3GS just last year. The carrier says, “Given this unprecedented demand and our current expectations for our iPhone 4 inventory levels when the device is available June 24, were suspending pre-ordering today in order to fulfill the orders we’ve already received. The availability of additional inventory will determine if we can resume taking pre-orders.”
If you didn’t have much luck securing a device yesterday due to the massive system overload for Apple, AT&T or anyone else, we feel your pain. With demand this high, and no signs of subsiding, we can only expect to see the hot new smartphone flying off shelves the minute they hit. So if pre-orders do resume, be sure to jump on the opportunity right away. Otherwise, you may come up empty on launch day without a clue as to when you’ll be able to get one. Let’s not forget what past launches were like and how some stores were out of stock for weeks!
This does leave me wondering just how well other handsets are going to do around the iPhone launch. The EVO had been sold out for a while, there is an event next week featuring Verizon and Motorola for the new Droid X, and other handsets sprinkled here and there don’t even seem to stand a chance against the Apple’s strong momentum right now.
With all that said, did you manage to reserve a phone for yourself?
[Via: PhoneScoop]
About The Author
Marc Flores
Marc has been a mobile fanatic for the better part of a decade and has had more devices pass through his hands than he would care to count. Originally from Los Angeles and briefly in San Francisco, Marc now lives in Brooklyn where, unlike Will Park, he longs for simpler times and simpler technology. All the while, he writes about gadgets and wireless technology as he tinkers, hacks and ultimately breaks most of his gadgets in the process. Marc has written about the mobile industry for Boy Genius Report, MobileCrunch, Laptop Magazine and has had his work appear in the Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, CrunchGear and more.
