Yesterday Apple and its carrier partners took pre-orders for more than 600,000 of Apple’s new iPhone 4.
It was the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day and was far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions.
Many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration.
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.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple, the main problem was, and remains, and has always been your carrier partner, emphasis on the cingular. Stop covering for AT&T and get your act together. It’s well past time to make the move to multiple iPhone carriers in the U.S.A.
How many individual song, movie, TV show, and other media sales does Apple complete without issue every single day? Common sense tells us that the blatantly predictable issue of failed iPhone 4 pre-orders isn’t coming from Apple.
However, after the apology above, we’re left wondering if we should stop recommending Xserves and Mac OS X Server to people who want to fulfill high volumes of online sales orders instead of pissing off current and potential customers.
Santa says:
Ho ho ho…..ho ho ho
Another apple owned Xmas retail record !
Pick a gift, any gift….:
IPads, iPhones, iPods, iMacs, MacBooks, Apps, iTunes gift Vouchers, Apple ( hobby) TVs,
Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho
I am so frustrated about all that happened yesterday. If ATT is truly that ignorant/incompetent as to not prepare to handle this situation, then I don’t think they will do any better with the service try provide to iPhone users. Not just that, but if it’s true that iPhone 4 will be new successful than any predecessor, and thereby adding many more people to ATTs network, all of us will suffer very soon while trying to use the internet or voice. Apple, it’s time to spread out. Heck, I’ll even take Tmobile or Sprint at this point. :/
Blame whoever, but don’t blame “high volume”. I don’t think there was any at 6:30 am EST…
That should read “more successful” and “they provide”.
All just as orchestrated and planned by the now very transparent and past marketing genius of Steve Jobs. Even this statement was probably written weeks ago.
Attn: Steve Jobs: Time to try something different. You’ve managed to piss off far more people than you have created the sense of urgency you intended.
@breeze: Oh, no, you dint! Forget the NEW Mac Mini? Or Mac Mini Server? If you haven’t seen it, check it out. Unibody, with AppleTV footprint (it appears). HDMI, too.
Yeah, MDN knows better than Apple and Jobs. Anyway my iP4 will be delivered on the 24th.
600,000 orders in 1 day overloading the servers ? I wish I had those kind of problems.
Nokia et al only dream about this kind of problem.
“Mark Siegal, an AT&T;spokesman, said preorder sales for the iPhone 4 were 10 times higher than on the first day the iPhone 3GS was available for ordering last June. He said AT&T;would suspend new orders for the time being.”
10 x higher – Are you kidding? There is going to be constrained supply of these things for the next 6 months. They still can’t make enough iPads to meet demand. Apple is firing on all cylinders.
Whom ever calculates the “anticipated numbers” for Apple needs to get a clue! Fire his @ss!
Over 600,000 got through.
Based on all the complaints, it would appear that anywhere from 6 to 60 millions attempts were made.
I don’t know of any organization that could handle that much of a demand at any time.
Imagine how we would feel if our cities decided to build 50 lane highways to the suburbs in order to prevent traffic jams during twice-a-day daily rush hours.
As they say, patience is virtue. And as long as Apple continues to develop products that demand such reverence, having to wait a day, two or as long as it takes won’t kill me.
Oh, and I just can’t wait until I try to activate my luvly new iP4 once it’s delivered on 24 June! That’s gonna be an absolute mess! I’ll probably gaze upon its wonderfulness for a few days and continue to use my 3GS before trying to activate the the new one.
If Apple widely publicizes the Facetalk feature, new customers will flock to this thing exponentially crazy. That feature is something I’ve been waiting for since the original iPhone.
It truly amazes me at the ignorance of these folks that post such utterly rediculous statements. Everyone & their cousin wants one of these gems including myself but come on people use your brain instead of showing us how stupid you are because you got money to throw away and even more clueless to stand in line for a material object but yet can’t hold the door for your wife or a stranger, nor can you pause so that someone can move into the flow of traffic and heaven forbid you would offer your services for free to someone in need !! Yeah we live in a materialistic world and you all are living proof that the more important things in life don’t breathe. Not saying I am perfect by no means but sheesh give me a break, all this crying for a phone ????
You’re telling me they couldn’t see this coming?! I find that hard to believe. With every previous release they’ve sold at least this many phones within the first two days, so why wouldn’t they think they’d sell at least that this time? They themselves said that iPhone4 is the BIGGEST LEAP they’ve made since the original iPhone and I agree. It’s not optional. Even iPhone3Gs users want an iPhone4. I would have planned on a million pre-orders the first day. So obvious.
Why AT&T;?
On May 1 2011, Apple will acquire AT&T;and it will become “Apple Teledata & Technologies”.
Was the 600,000 just in the US?
Or was that international?
AS
Scubaboy:
Oops….
I would like to see the iPod Touch with a mic and camera take over cell phones. People get MiFi (use as a personal cell tower) use FaceTime or that second line app. What do you think?
Deja vu!
I remember when this happened with the Zune preorder . . . wait
. . . or was that the Droid release?
“It could have been Apple requirements that individuals buy no more than a certain number of phones.”
That’s definitely it. They wanted to make sure people bought no more than 0 phones.
Could be a worse problem….headline…System DIDN’T crash due to little or no pre-orders!
@Taz…
punctuation is your friend…
just sayin’
open up iPhone in USA to what other carrier? No others have compatible network technology, so Apple would have to make another model or add complexity to the current device. Neither is going to happen. My guess is it will be minimum 2 years before there is another option that is do-able, network-wise, in the USA. The 2 CDMA carriers in Canada have rebuilt their networks to add GSM to the mix. And so we now have 3 iPhone carriers to choose from, like the rest of the world.