“AT&T Inc. sold almost all its initial stock of Apple Inc.’s iPhone within hours of the device going on sale, an AT&T spokesman said on Saturday,” Reuters reports. “An Apple spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the number of iPhones sold at its 162 U.S. outlets.”
“‘Virtually all of our stores sold out of the iPhone last night,’ AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said, declining to specify how many units had been sold,” Reuters reports.
“AT&T… runs about 1,800 stores in the United States,” Reuters reports.
Asked about problems that some iPhone buyers were having with activating their phones, Siegel said the “vast majority” of customers were able to begin using their phones within minutes,” Reuters reports. “‘There are some whose activation process is being delayed and that’s something that can happen in a launch like this and we’re resolving those on a case-by-case basis,’ Siegel said.”
Full article here.
Yes, the bloodbath has commenced.
Still waiting to hear how many have been sold and how many will be made available over next few weeks..
Hopefully in about 3-4 weeks we’ll know how many people have these things.
How long do you guys think until they are widely available without back orders?
I had problems, itunes gave me a new number.
The warm glow of being proven right permeates the atmosphere!
Our local store in the Lansing, MI area was sold out in less than half an hour after the doors opened.
Apple will probably let us know when the first million units have been sold. It could be as early as Monday.
Imagine what that piece of news would do for AAPL – the most optimistic analyst estimates of 200,000 sales during the launch weekend now look like the low-end of the range. I’d estimate sales at 400,000+.
@crabapple
??How were you right??
I too, would like to know how many iPhones were sold last night
The big wave has yet to arrive. This was just the initial “oh-oh”, somethings not right, as the Tsunami in the distance builds energy. This time next year the playing field is going to be very different with many of today’s key mobile players saying “what the fsck was that????” as there stock reaches for new lows.
What I would be interested in finding out is if they broke the world record for the most number of phones sold in one day and the most number of phones activated in the shortest period of time. I am sure both those records have fallen, that is why some iphone owners have been unable to register as smoothly and easily as others.
This info will help to mitigate the few individuals who have “suffered” I say that with a pinch of salt and also it will show just how many people are tech savvy provided the technologies are designed and engineered by people who care, as opposed to those buck toothed, wrench wielding so called smart phone manufacturers!
It looks like all you need to do to “estimate” iPhone sales is to ask Apple how many they’ve put into the pipeline at any give moment. Apple should release this number (and future manufacturing numbers) because it is clear it will sell every iPhone it can make for the foreseeable future. Doing so will stop idle speculation from “analysts.”
Unlike Microsoft, Apple will not have to count units sitting in inventory as a “sale” because there will not be any units collecting dust in inventory.
I am one of the delayed users. I was just promised that they would have it resolved within 72 hours.
I am not happy about the delay, but I hope it gets resolved soon. However I am an AT&T customer, so i was able to move the SIM card from the iPhone to my old one to have cell coverage. I would be furious if I was coming from another carrier and was with out a phone.
The old SIM card was deactivated and can’t be used, so i wou
@ Hotinplaya, I am not alone in being right, there were several of us who blogged with regards to Apple having a history of launching thoroughly tried and tested products leading to a faithful Applelyte club.
We also discussed how the first Mac was way ahead of its time and set the mould for all others to follow.
How the software is unparalled and the fact that it was soo ahead of its time that the internet was created using it in the form of NEXTstep.
The argument lay in the fact that AT&T did not have a similar track record, so Apple pulled its experts from Leopard to help AT&T Q&A their network in order that yesterday could happen as smoothly as it did, albeit the heavy demand on it.
It was the right decision to delay Leopard as we now see events unfold and to top the hot chocolate with marshmallows or cream (depending on your taste) Vista is still so far up the balmy ones rear oriface that it still has not caught up with Tiger, despite copying it like a Xerox machine!!!:-)
Need I go on?
AT&T & iphone are up and running & expanding already, Bring on Leopard I say!
I’m still waiting for my phone to be activated and it’s been 19 hours!!! I’m an apple fan, and stock holder, but I’m getting pissed!!!
From what I understand about the iPhone, I think that it is great technology and should make life easier for all mobile telephone slaves. Kudos to Apple for the iPhone.
But the brag that AT&T ran out of iPhones simply reflects that Apple has historically never had its act together with being able to keep up with volume demand for its popular products, in my opinion.
My activation was flawless and took about 3 minutes. Couldn’t be happier!
10 hours in line. 20 minutes to buy phone after doors opened at 6:00pm. 30 minutes to drive home and walk dogs. 10 minutes to photograph OBE (Out of Box Experience). Download iTunes 7.3, 10 minutes. Restart and rebuild permissions (yes, I know, very anal…). Connect iPhone and sign up with AT&T, 2 minutes. Final activation on iPhone, 3 minutes.
Then I remembered to eat something.
Perhaps AT&T got all the phones they asked for…
@ Reality Check, You are right!! You have hit the head on the nail!!! ha haaa!!
AT&T Have almost run out of iphones & indeed in some stores they have!
Some Apple stores probably ahev run out too and I wouldn’t be surprised if the stores that did not have a rush have been asked to dispatch their extar phones to the ones that have run out.
BUT YOU KNOW WHAT?
The Balmy one can teach Apple a lesson today! I never thought I would hear myself say that!
The lesson is how not to run out of stock almost after a product release.
The Balmy one did not run out of Zunes on release, is not out of stock on Zunes, months after release, will never run out of stock as far the Zune is concerned!!!! Aaaaaaha! ha! ha! haaaa!!!!!!!:-)
i waited in line at at & t store on 17th st & 6th avenue in manhattan from 3pm.. there were about 60 people ahead of me. so heck i thought i would get one for sure. after all that waiting, they ran out about 10 people infront of me. which means they only had about 50 or so. i was frustrated so ordered online to realize the shipping estimate of 2-4 weeks! my friend ran and bought one at apple store on 5th avenue and bought me one too! but now at & t (i recently changed my service from sprint to at & t to avoid this sort of problem), is taking forever to activate my iphone. it’s been over 2 hours and it also deactivated my sim card in my temporary at & t phone! without phone and waiting for an iphone to activate is painful! but it’s so pretty just to stare at it…
It’s glorious living in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area: 4 Apple stores and numerous AT&T stores. iPhones a plenty out here with 0 line wait time. In fact, all our Apple stores still have stock.
Five minutes and I was activated and up and running. So easy it scared.
Ummm, there was one minor glitch. Some dumba$$ forgot to plug the USB hub that the iPhone dock was plugged into back into my MacBook Pro when it was set up.
Cool Web Apps are starting to show up. Great list maker here: http://www.listingly.com/
AT&T stores in Huntsville, Alabama received smaller second shipment this morning. Both stores have sold out. They are expecting more shipment this coming week, but they have no date of arrival.
The Nashville Apple stores have sold old this morning, but they are receiving another shipment to go on sell tomorrow morning at 9 AM.
AT&T is indicating they can ship free to your home in 3 to 5 business days. If you don’t receive, you can cancel your order.
– Brian
I went by an Apple Store today to touch one. There was still a line
of about 20 people out front waiting for a new shipment. It looks like
the shipment had arrived because when I left, everybody was standing.
There were about 10 iPhones configured for display at one table. Every
one was being fondled by somebody.
I had about 5 minutes with an iPhone and I find that it is a pretty
slick package, for what it is. It is a content consumption device, not
a content creation device. It may run a version of OS X, but it isn’t
set up to replace, or even get close to replacing, a portable
computer.
However, within it’s scope, it seems to do quite well. I think that
the hype over the keyboard is entirely overblown. It took me about 15
seconds to get used to it and I was flying in two thumb mode and I have
big thumbs. It does a good job at rendering web pages that were not
designed for a small screen (like this one). By turning the iPhone
sideways to allow larger text, it was readable without sideways
scrolling or magnification. When the iPhone is held sideways, the
location bar goes away so that you have to turn it portrait to go to
type a new URL. I made a phone call, it worked. I didn’t get a chance
to play with the iPod function or the other programs on it.
I’ve long said, it doesn’t matter how many fanbois buy up Apple’s iPhone at launch, what matters is how much “legs” this product has, and how well it will resonate with the rest of the buying public.
How well iPhone does on launch weekend will be great bragging point, but what really matters is how well this thing is doing 3-6 weeks from now, when all the initial buying frenzy is past, and the fence sitters buy or don’t buy an iPhone.
@ tmf By that time, the fence sitters will have their rear oriface split in half by the fence!!!
I’m not really surprised to hear that AT&T sold out so quickly with all of those lines, and that there were some activation problems. That’s really to be expected. I hope that new iPhone owners will be able to get their problems resolved quickly.
I’m kind of disappointed with the news media (yeah, I know, big surprise, huh?). They loved showing the people in the iLines, and we got a bunch of comments by “so-called” experts who were there to bad-mouth the iPhone.
The problem was that nobody bothered to ask the store managers how many iPhones that they were given. That seemed like a very important thing to ask all of these people. Oh well.
Within the world of the non-iPhone sales folks – the word “unlimited call plans/free minuets ” is going to be taking on some really shocking new meaning by monday morning!
When you walk up and find that you don’t have anything to sale – price becomes you only back up position!
@ therepguy Do you reckon the New York Philharmonic orchestra will be performing free minuets? ha! ha! haaa!!!!
Now that would be shocking to the cognoscenti!
And these are just the, um, zealots.
The normal consumers haven’t even showed up yet. Give them a month or so.
This is the moment, comrades. (And I use that term sincerely, despite my affection for this forum’s greatest troll, Sputnik.) All that “beleaguered,” bleeding six colors in the mid-’90’s? That’s all over now. It’s gone. Let’s all just sit back and savor it.
(Myself, I’m waiting for the first iPhone with a hard drive. I’ll get one when it can replace my 60 GB 4G iPod, with all of my music. At least until I change my mind in a moment of weakness. Which will probably happen about a week from now.)
“The Balmy one can teach Apple a lesson today!”
There is NOTHING that the classless one could teach Apple… NOTHING!
Monkey Boy couldn’t teach a monkey how to eat a banana.
This is already, far and away, the most successful launch of a consumer electronics product ever.
-jcr
This is already, far and away, the most successful launch of a consumer electronics product ever.
-jcr
This is already, far and away, the most successful launch of a consumer electronics product ever.
-jcr
This is already, far and away, the most successful launch of a consumer electronics product ever.
-jcr
Four minutes and I was up and running. Had an error message first time around but after a reboot of the computer, it was a snap. Typing is weird but getting the hang of it. I’m typing from my iPhone . This is sweet.
“But the brag that AT&T ran out of iPhones simply reflects that Apple has historically never had its act together with being able to keep up with volume demand for its popular products, in my opinion.” – Reality Check
Oh what insight. For you to criticise Apple and their decision making is a joke that only you don’t see.
And you also don’t appear to see that restricting availability helps to stoke yet greater demand.
I have now to presume that Reality Check works for Microsoft. Probably a decent engineer but absolute crap at everything else.
The problems with phone numbers porting and AT&T getting the numbers together on FamilyTalk plans are evidence of why Steve calls these folks “orifices.”
Great flawless Apple execution, and all the problems are on the cellular side…..
My local AT&T store had 50 8GBs and 20 4GBs with 70 people in line by 5:30. All the 8GBs went first.
It seems as though there are 4GB models left. The guy at the Apple store said people are opting to come back later for 8GB models.
My Auburn, Maine ATT store had 30 iPhones, only 20-8GBs and 10-4GBs. The 8GBs sold in the first hour, and i picked up the very last 4GB at 9pm, after I saw Ratatouille.
3 mins to activate, with a new number.
I don’t have USB2 on my old TiPB, and it took ages to transfer all my stuff.
just got home from an 8 hour round trip to the “local” apple store. walked in got in line (4 back) bought 2 8gbs & a pair of encase sleeves. out in about 10 minutes. most people in line already knew what they wanted and didn’t venture near the display. the 10 display iphones had people 2 & 3 deep to touch one. looking forward to setting them up tonite. xmas in july. can you beat that?
mw/school: the mobile industry is being taken to school by apple
I walked by the SoHo Apple Store this afternoon (Sat.). It was insane. It’s always busy, since I walk by fairly often. I was there a couple of times this week getting a new MacBook Pro… BUT I’ve never EVER seen it that packed! Totally insane. I just kept walking.
Dropped into the small AT&T store in my neighborhood on 77th & Broadway… y’know, one of those small phone stores that never has anyone in them and you wonder how they afford to keep such places open and staffed.
Well, today at 5:30pm there was a line to the door… maybe 10 people with another 10 trying to maneuver around the displays. There were several peopl showing their iPhones to other people in the store RAVING about how much they loved them, how much FUN they are and had spent all night playing.
Nearly everyone has a cell phone and nearly everyone tolerates or outright HATES their phone. Just imagine a phone that is FUN to use? I’ve owned Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericsson… they were ALL irritating in many ways.
You can BET that the initial iPhone release is just like the Navy Seals going in to “soften” a target before the big assault. Wait until all those hundreds of thousands of people start showing everyone who asks and tell them how much they LOVE their iPhones. This will make the iPod seem like small potatoes.
Apple will sell every last one of them and still need to crank out more!
Like others, I want a hard drive based one so i can replace my 5.5 gen 80GB iPod.
I got home last night with my new iphone in hand. I walked up to the counter, gave credit card and walked out..they emailed me a reciept from their handheld card scanner. I got home cut open the bottom square of plastic off so I could keep the rest of the shrink wrap intact. Then I slid the top off and took the phone out along with all of the other contents. Next, I hooked it up to iTunes 7.3 and got the message that I needed a SIM card. Long story short. I spoke with support at Apple after exhaustive online searching. They had not heard of a phone not having the SIM installed. I took the phone back to apple this morning and got ZERO hassle or questions. Just a new phone. After getting home with the new phone I am set up with a new number and good to go in just a few minutes. Later today Apple called me back from tech support, apologized for the inconvenience and gave me a name and direct extension if I have any more problems.
Now, I can’t say I am happy to have been on the phone for 1 Hour and 42 minutes or the 25 mile each way trip to exchange, but I really appreciated such effort during what is understandably a very tough situation to deal with. The first few days with the launch of what may turn out to be the most anticipated device EVER will soon start to go smoother. I am VERY VERY happy and …. oh yeah….this baby is SMOKIN’!!! Bravo!!! HOME RUN!!! GOALLLLLL!!!!!
Thanks Apple
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I love all this complaining about Apple not planning the right quantity for the first fscking day. Come on, give me a break. Revolutionary new product, how the heck can anyone accurately predict how many will sell? How much money would you be willing to invest?
Let’s see, if they predicted to sell 400,000 and made 600,000 but sold all 600,000, they were wrong and planned poorly?? What if they predicted to sell 400,000, made the 600,000 but only sold 100,000. The wall street jackasses would be all over them… hello… Zune???
We’ll see once the weekend is over, regardless, I’m loving my iPhone!
My local AT&T store ran out of 8GB iPhones but a quick trip to an Apple store corrected the problem as they seemed to have plenty. Seriously, the experience at AT&T stores severely sucks when compared to purchasing it at an Apple store.
I opted to go to the Apple Store in a local mall this morning instead of yesterday just before 9AM. I think a lot of folks did not know the Apple Stores were open today at 9AM. There was a line of about 10 people when they opened the store and it took only about 2 minutes to purchase. I am an existing AT&T customer on a family plan. I attempted to activate my iPhone via iTunes at about 8PM EST and got a message in iTunes and an e-mail stating they are processing my activation. I had a company discounted plan and I had to waive that discount to activate. I am still waiting for e-mail confirmation that I can use the iPhone. I really hope this does not take the 72 hours stated by another post. That is really crazy!!!
Anyone else experiencing long delays in activation? Is it only happening to existing AT&T customers?
I got skunked at an AT&T store one block from my home in Alexandria VA on Friday Night. Picked up an 8 gig iPhone from Westfarms Mall in West Hartford, CT on Sat AM. Am activating now…waiting for AT&T to finish activation (a curent customer)
Just after 10m this morning I walked straight up to the counter of my local Apple store and walked out a couple of minutes later with an 8gb iPhone. (They had plenty left.) Activation from home about 30 minutes later took 2-3 minutes, adding a data plan to our existing family plan with no issues or delays, at all. So far the iPhone experience has been very painless.
You’re right, Crabapple, the Balmy one could teach Jobso something about how to keep appropriate stock in the stores: Control demand by product characteristics!
Hey Guys,
Thought you may like an idea how to help fix this Issue of not being registered.
restart mac, renew your Ip address, and try again.
PS: Who wants a free email :> iphonewebmail.com
I have a sad feeling that we’ll never know how many iPhones are being sold from the quarterly reporting and that Apple will simply roll them into the iPod figures.
If that’s the case, the only way you’ll really be able to tell how the iPhone is doing will be by checking the average revenue per unit on the iPod line of the report (IIRC, it’s around $169/unit at the moment), although the other clue will be the penetration of the iPhone version of Safari on the stats produced by the companies that keep track of such things.
My personal theory is that, once the first million units are in the hands of consumers – which I suspect will be by close of business on Sunday or midday on Monday, Apple will continue to move around 40,000 units/day until the end of October and that there will then be a spike to around 55-65K units in the run-up to Xmas.
On that basis, Apple will move upwards of 8.5 million iPhones by the end of 2007 which means that Apple will make mincemeat of the 2008 calendar year target of 10 million units.
Why am I aiming low?
Because I believe that – whilst the reviews are good – consumers will see the few qualifications on those reviews and choose to wait for an iPhone 2.0 which will iron out some issues and probably be a feature-update as well. In any case, 8.5 million units in a half-year isn’t really low given that Apple is starting from zero and the stated aims for calendar 2008 are so moderate.
Rudge “The problem was that nobody bothered to ask the store managers how many iPhones that they were given. That seemed like a very important thing to ask all of these people. Oh well.”
At the AT&T Store where I got mine, they had 60 of the 8GB version and 30 of the 4GB version. I was 30th in line, and no one in front of me wanted the 4GB version, even the first person in line, a 15yo girl was getting the 8GB.
I bet that Apple will sell at LEAST 3 of the 8GB versions for every 4GB version. Maybe not in the long run, but certainly in the initial wave of buyers.
I stopped in the Albuquerque Apple Store at 8 pm on Friday, expecting a frenzy…the place was virtually empty. I asked the sales clerk, “what happened? did you sell out already?” She looked at me very puzzled, “no, we still have plenty.” Then some woman walked right in, right up to the nearest clerk and said, “i’d like an iPhone.” He got hers straightaway. So, if you NEED an iPhone, try visiting Albuquerque. The city was apparently immune to the hype.
Update: I got the “Congratulations, AT&T has successfully activated your iPhone service.” E-mail message one and a 1/2 hours after the first “AT&T is now processing your activation.” E-mail message.
Things are looking a lot better now.
It’s been 24 hours and my iPhone still has not activated. Someone — Apple, AT&T, anyone — needs to address this and fix it. Their silence about the problem (let alone the problem itself) is unacceptable.
It may have taken 16 hours to get activated but I have enjoyed it since!
It’s been over 12 hours and my iBrick is still waiting to be activated.
I find this appalling – and I blame both AT&T and Apple. Who were the Nazi’s requring the phone to be activated before *anything* could be done with it (besides emergency calls)? Why couldn’t the phone be placed in a 3 day “grace period” of limited usage – at least it could function as an iPod until the activation came through. Why didn’t AT&T forsee that their networks wouldn’t handle the load?? (I wonder if they did, but let it slide anyway.) I guess Apple doesn’t care – they have your money and a restocking fee is $50 – so they win either way. AT&T don’t care because they know you’re unlikely to back away for the same reason.
I’m also wondering why the Mac websites have been pretty laid back on this “activation” issue (“some activation problems”) – had this been a Microsoft related story, they’d have been all over this like a blowfly on shit.
Glad I didn’t get one, waiting for activation would iSuck.
I’m sure it’s cool and all but it’s overpriced.
I, too, am still waiting for activation. Its Sunday morning, and last night ATT stated that I’d have to be patient. It may take 48 to 72 HOURS before I got activation.
Hell, I’m so emotionally spent after waiting since January, and then in line Friday for 6 hours, trying to get it to work for four hours Friday night and four hours Saturday morning, talking to ATT 3 times and now having ATT (I am an existing customer) screw the pooch, that I’ve put the iPhone in a cupboard until I get the activation email.
But it sure looks gorgeous. Anyone else think that it looks much smaller than in the videos? I swear I got the mini version!
I went to an apple store and did not have to wait long. After I got home I started searching for unlock services. I did run across this site
Official iphone unlock Last time I checked they had some info about some cool software.
I waited almost 48 hours to be activated… If this is similar to your story know this..THIS IS THE MOST INSANELY GREAT DEVICE THAT YOU HAVE EVER HELD IN YOUR HANDS AND IS WORTH EVERY EXTRA MOMENT YOU HAD TO WAIT! Do not let the frustration spoil the party. Your patience will be greatly rewarded!
I went into my local AT&T store late Sunday afternoon and they still had both models in stock. My local Apple store also shows the iPhone as in stock.
I tried the phone and while it’s pretty cool I passed on it. I may (OK probably) get one down the road but for now I’ll keep what I have.