Sorry: Apple/AT&T Put Brakes on New iPhone4 Orders
The first day of ordering for the new iPhone 4 turned out to be a victory and a loss for Apple and AT&T.
So many fans of the newest tech gadget from Apple, Inc. that the pre-ordering system ground to a halt by mid-morning yesterday. Users hit a wall when trying to access AT&T's servers to verify if they were eligible for the new contract price of $199 for a 16GB phone.
The status of pre-orders changed quickly in 24 hours as Apple took in over 600,000 reservations. By the end of the first day, delivery was delayed until July 4, and by today all new orders were temporarily suspended. Finally, in midafternoon, pre-orders were restored, but phones wouldn't ship until at least July 14.
"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. "The availability of additional inventory will determine if we can resume taking pre-orders."
Apple today took steps to make amends by issuing an apology in hopes the thousands of frustrated customers would try ordering again.
"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," Apple said in a press release.
AT&T's server failure became the butt of many jokes on the social Web, including on Twitter where users mocked AT&T and sarcastically speculated that there was one Windows 95-based machine checking account statuses Others suggested that AT&T was using its own 3G data network, which is frequently bashed by iPhone users for dropped calls and slow data response times.
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