AT&T canceling Apple iPhone 4 preorders?

How angry would you be if you spent hours and hours trying to preorder an Apple iPhone 4 yesterday only to find out AT&T canceled your order the next day? Well, scattered reports across the web have said anxious would-be iPhone owners are getting a cancellation notice.

In an e-mail to some customers, AT&T said:

“Unfortunately, we were either unable to verify the information you provided or you have exceeded the number of lines of service that we allow customers to purchase online. As a result, your order has been canceled.”

One would hope that AT&T would have noticed this during the preorders, as this could be the biggest smartphone tease we’ve seen in a while. Hopefully, none of these are false positives, either.

The second-largest U.S. carrier somehow didn’t seem prepared for the onslaught of iPhone 4 madness. The company said it received 10 times the amount of preorders for the iPhone 4 than the iPhone 3GS and it has had to halt the preorders because it can’t keep up with demand. The carrier has already sold about 600,000 units and this is pretty darn impressive considering it’s only preorders.

So, what’s all the preorder fuss about? Well, the iPhone 4 is arguably the biggest hardware upgrade in the history of Apple’s smartphones. Along with a super thin exterior, it packs a larger battery, an improved screen that could set the bar for visual clarity on a smartphone (the Retina display), a 5-megapixel camera that can record HD videos, a new stainless steel band that doubles as the antenna, and the A4 processor, which should make the handset run smoothly.

The iOS 4 update is nothing to sneeze at either, as it finally brings multitasking and background processing to the iPhone. This finally puts it on par with Android, BlackBerry and others and it could lead to some cool new programs in the App Store.

Did you preorder the iPhone 4 or are you sticking with something else?

[Via Phonedog]

About The Author

Marin Perez

Marin Perez has torture tested cell phones and smartphones for industry leaders like CNET and InformationWeek. He remembers when 4G was just a screen on PowerPoint presentations and is fascinated with the amount of innovation out there. Marin has spent a lot of time with BlackBerry and Android but he finally broke down a bought an iPhone to see what all the hype's about. He also has too many tablets.

Chase

Yes I ordered mine first try on AT&T ‘s website at 6:45amEST YESTERDAY MORNING. It says delivery on the 24th and my account was debited so I hope I get it. Oh, how POd I would be if I didn’t!
KENNY

I got my pre order canceled twice, they sent me not one but two emails, for only one iPhone, after spending hours on the internet trying to get a pre order in, I thought I had it, until this morning, when I discovered a Email from AT&T, my order was canceled. I spend most of my day going through the runaround with AT&T support asking "How could this happen I got a confirmation" After getting hung up on by the HOLD machine twice I received another Email saying the same iPhone that was canceled before was now canceled a second time, to make it worse the only part of my order that went through was the renewal of my 2 year contract, Is this a sign that the world, or maybe just AT&T, is not ready for the Epicness of the iPhone 4
D2G

Wow.. iPhone does not make you cool or give you status.. Go get a real device.. Much better hardware out there now..
Nic

There is not "much better" hardware out there now, there's a couple devices with slightly better hardware, and nowhere near the user-experience
Alicia

So glad i decided to pre-order it from Apple versus AT&T. I knew something was fishy when AT&T made preorders available to new customers first. I tried to order by signing into my account on AT&T, and although I am eligible for an upgrade the iphone 4 wasn't even on the list of iphones-once I logged in, it was on the list when I went through ordering as a new customer. I called AT&T and they said it would be available for pre-order for current customers later in the day, so I decided to keep trying my luck with the Apple Store and was finally successful at 930pm-I started trying to order the phone at 4am EST.
luis

get a life !!!