Apple said pre-orders for its iPhone 4 rang up a new single-day advance-sales record — despite massive ordering glitches that left many potential buyers hanging.
The company said it took more than 600,000 iPhone 4 pre-orders — but the crush of customers, 10 times higher than for the iPhone 3GS, according to AT&T, led to “order and approval system malfunctions.”
AT&T, Apple’s exclusive service partner in the US, suspended pre-orders on its site and in stores late in the day on June 14, the first day to pre-order the hot smart phone, after suffering a system meltdown along with a security mishap that showed account information to the wrong customers.
Apple also apologized to frustrated customers after running out of supplies. Yesterday afternoon, the company appeared to be accepting pre-orders once again but it pushed back the delivery date first to July 2 and then to July 14 from its original June 24 date.
“Many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration,” Apple said in a statement. “We apologize to everyone who encountered difficulties, and hope that they will try again or visit an Apple or carrier store once the iPhone 4 is in stock.”
While many would-be buyers were upset, Wall Street remained bullish on Apple, citing strong demand for the iPhone as a major plus. Shares of Apple rose 2.9 percent to close yesterday at $267.25. Apple shares have risen 9.9 percent over the past five trading days compared to the 5.2 percent gain for the Dow Jones industrial average over the same period.
Nevertheless, the iPhone debacle shows that Apple is still struggling with issues of supply and demand, analysts said. Apple has had difficulties in the past ramping up production to meet consumer demand, most recently for the iPad, forcing the company to postpone the international release.
“It looks like what they’ve got is a situation that is similar to the issues they had with the iPad,” said Gartner Group analyst Van Baker. “I would anticipate they will have some availability issues for at least a couple of months if not more.”
Both Apple and AT&T were overwhelmed by the iPhone onslaught on Tuesday. Customers complained they couldn’t place their orders online or over the phone after Apple and AT&T’s ordering systems seized up early in the day.
“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,” AT&T said in a statement.
AT&T wouldn’t comment on reports that some buyers were inadvertently shown other customers’ account information.