AT&T began selling the iPhone 4 on a first come, first served basis Tuesday after suspending pre-orders for the eagerly-desired handset. When pre-orders began June 15, the exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier announced they experienced their busiest online sales day.
Although the carrier provided iPhone 4s June 24 to customers who had initially pre-ordered the device, today is the first day AT&T will sell the handset to those who were not able to place a pre-order. Once inventory is depleted, buyers will be given the option to have the iPhone 4 delivered to their home, business or an AT&T store.
Monday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the Cupertino, Calif. company sold 1.7 million iPhone 4s during the first three days of availability, breaking previous records for initial iPhone sales. Jobs also apologized for the long lines customers encountered and the unit’s scarcity in some areas.
In related news, AT&T announced it had upgraded its 3G network in the New York City area. Since the iPhone launched in 2007, the carrier’s network has grown more than 5,000 percent.
“We’re working 24/7 to make sure our customers have a great experience every time they make a call, check e-mail, download a song or video, or surf the internet on their AT&T device,” Tom DeVito, vice president and general manager for AT&T in NY and NJ said.
[via AppleInsider]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
