AT&T suspends iPhone 4 pre-orders altogether, says they were ten times 3GS' numbers
AT&T just kicked things up another notch, going from a launch day pre-order sellout for the iPhone 4 to... well, a total pre-order sellout. The carrier has announced this morning that it's "suspending pre-ordering today in order to fulfill the orders we've already received," saying only that it will resume the pre-order process when it can wrap its brain around the "additional inventory" it'll have on hand. It's hard to gauge where this lies on the truth / hype meter, but for what it's worth, they're saying that pre-orders outstripped the 3GS by a factor of ten, and eligibility checks were three times higher than the previous one-day record. Or... you know, maybe they just don't want any more information falling into the wrong hands until they can figure things out. Follow the break for AT&T's full statement.
"iPhone 4 pre-order sales yesterday were 10-times higher than the first day of pre-ordering for the iPhone 3G S last year. Consumers are clearly excited about iPhone 4, AT&T's more affordable data plans and our early upgrade pricing.
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.
The availability of additional inventory will determine if we can resume taking pre-orders.
In addition to unprecedented pre-order sales, yesterday there were more than 13 million visits to AT&T's website where customers can check to see if they are eligible to upgrade to a new phone; that number is about 3-times higher than the previous record for eligibility upgrade checks in one day.
We are working hard to bring iPhone 4 to as many of our customers as soon as possible."
