Apple is laughing till all its teeth dropped while walking to the bank, as all iPhone 4 was bought up by frenzy customers on the 1st day of launch. All iPhone 4 are sold out across the states, including Chicago, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore, Miami and Charlotte.
There are already 600,000 units pre-ordered either for pick-up or delivery (which is already delivered, mostly), and there are still reserved units for walk-in customers, which the numbers are not disclosed, but does not fall short of the half million mark. We’re also not counting those from foreign countries like in the UK and Japan.
Most customers started to queue up outside the shopping mall since Wednesday night. Some customers who did not do any reservations through online had to queue for 12 hours to even 18 hours just for the spanking new glossy black phone.
Apple spokesman Steve Dowling wouldn’t say how quickly stores would get replenished. “The demand for iPhone 4 is off the charts,” he said. “We are working hard to get them to everyone as quickly as possible.”
Making the shopping experience tougher, Apple and AT&T began taking reservations for the phone on June 15. They received so many that by the end of the day they stopped taking orders for 24th June pickup. Apple’s website now promises delivery by July 14.
Apple says it sold 600,000 in early orders, and Munster predicts sales of 1 million to 1.5 million phones by Saturday. The new iPhone starts at $199 with a two-year contract or renewal.
Munster calls the launch the “biggest” he’s seen for a consumer tech device. What happened? AT&T relaxed its qualifying rules for upgrades, Apple had a hot, cool phone and current iPhone customers salivated for it, says Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies. “It was perfect timing for an upgrade,” he says.
