The delay means that some customers may not receive their handset until nearly a month after it launches on June 24, when shipping time is considered.
Earlier Wednesday, Apple moved back new iPhone 4 orders, promising they would ship by July 2. Those orders were scheduled to be delivered between July 6 and July 8, meaning customers could have to wait as long as two weeks after the June 24 launch to receive their iPhone.
Assuming the same shipping time, orders sent out on July 14 would not likely arrive until around Monday, July 19. That would be 25 days — or nearly four weeks — after the June 24 launch.
Apple announced that more than 600,000 devices were preordered on the first day of iPhone 4 availability. The Cupertino, Calif., company also took the opportunity to apologize to customers who encountered difficulties in placing their preorder.
Both Apple and AT&T, its exclusive wireless carrier in the U.S., experienced issues, as AT&T's servers struggled to verify eligibility for some existing customers, and Apple was forced to turn away callers to its toll-free telephone number.
Orders through AT&T are no longer an option for U.S. customers, as the wireless carrier announced Wednesday that it was suspending preorders due to demand ten times higher than for the iPhone 3GS. The company said it has temporarily suspended preorders so it can fulfill the orders it has already received, and the availability of additional inventory will determine whether they will resume taking preorders.
Preorders remain limited to the black iPhone 4 model, as the white version is listed as currently unavailable for purchase. Third-party retailers such as Best Buy have also halted preorders of the white model.
71 Comments
Production issues with white model?
at&t issued a statement, including
considering i accounted for about 1 million of those visits, that doesn't sound all that bad.
You'd have hoped they'd have learnt their lesson over the ipad, lol you can just picture the board meeting now "guys, we've got this super hot new phone that everyones going to want, perhaps we should be cautious and only have a million or so available on launch day, what do you guys think?"
I guess few people wants the EVO 4G. After all, the buzz was that it will be the iPhone killer. Well, the pundits are wrong once again. The only smartphone to outsell an iPhone model will be another iPhone.
"iPhone, the smarter phone!". This should be the new Apple trademark.
Can't wait to get mine.
The EVO is a nice phone, I have used one and it does a good job. As long as I get my iQuattro on the 24th, I'm good.