Well… that was fast.
On Tuesday morning, preordering began for the 4th generation iPhone, which will officially launch June 24th.
But by Tuesday afternoon, a massive wave of selling prompted a revised estimated shipping date for all subsequently placed preorders. Simply put, if you weren’t among the first to preorder, there’s a very slim possibility that you will receive the iPhone 4 at your residence or place of business before the July 4th holiday.
July 2nd is the new estimated shipping date presented to customers when preordering.
Despite melted-down servers and other technological glitches of epic proportions that prevented many from preordering their updated Apple smartphone in a timely manner on Tuesday, supplies of the new iPhone still managed to sell like the proverbial hotcakes.
“Because of the incredible interest in iPhone 4, today was the busiest online sales day in AT&T history,” noted the carrier in response to the overwhelming demand. “As of Tuesday afternoon, customers who preorder iPhone 4 moving forward will receive their device on June 25 or later, depending on when the order is placed. We’ll email customers with confirmation once their order is placed, and again when it ships. In addition, we will have devices available on a first-come, first-serve basis in our stores beginning on June 24.”
As it stands, however, it isn’t believed that there will actually be many available iPhones for that “first come, first serve” arrangement on launch day. The anticipated shortage is so substantial that AT&T has promptly blocked out all employees from taking advantage of the iPhone preorder process. Apple has even requested that Best Buy stop accepting preorders for the white 4th gen iPhone model.
Although the updated iPhone was expected to be a hot commodity, few – including Apple and AT&T – adequately planned for the juggernaut sales recorded within only the first few hours of the preorder kick-off.
