Apple Inc said on Wednesday it received 600,000 orders for the new iPhone, a single-day record, as its telecom partner AT&T suspended the troubled early ordering process because of the heavy demand.
Apple also apologized for the difficulties experienced on Tuesday by customers who were seeking to pre-order the latest version of the hot-selling touchscreen smartphone.
AT&T, its exclusive carrier in the US, said pre-order sales for the iPhone 4 were “10 times higher than the first day of pre-ordering for the iPhone 3GS last year.”
“Given this unprecedented demand and our current expectations for our iPhone 4 inventory levels when the device is available June 24, we’re suspending pre-ordering today in order to fulfill the orders we’ve already received,” it said.
The Apple and AT&T Web sites were overwhelmed by requests on Tuesday, the first day of pre-ordering for the iPhone 4, with many customers reporting receiving error messages.
Apple said it had received 600,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4, which goes on sale in Britain, France, Germany, Japan and the US on June 24, “the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day.”
The Cupertino, California, firm said demand was “far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions.
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