Apple Sold 600,000 iPhone 4 Pre-Orders Yesterday

Yesterday was the pre-order day for much anticipated iPhone 4 in USA. Demand was so strong for the iPhone 4 that it caused system malfunctions on Apple’s website and even caused AT&T to suspend pre-orders. AT&T mentions that iPhone 4 pre-orders were ten times that of the iPhone 3GS from last year. That’s crazy.

Here’s the media statement Apple released:

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.

With the Canadian iPhone 4 arrival date still unknown (we know it’ll be in July sometime), it will be hard to imagine Canadian pre-orders to even come close to this. First of all, Canadians are locked in to long term contracts with their iPhones, which can make upgrading difficult. However, since Apple will sell factory unlocked iPhones in Canada for the possible price of $649/$749, we could see some significant outright sales here.

Selling 600,000 pre-orders of anything is downright impressive, let alone a smartphone. The huge demand has pushed iPhone 4 delivery dates back to July 14th. Let’s hope this doesn’t delay the iPhone 4 arrival in Canada like we saw with the iPad release here.

Will we be able to pre-order the iPhone 4 in Canada like we did with the iPad? I think waiting in line to get one on the launch day will be better since many iPad pre-orders were late due to a huge FAIL by FedEx.

[Business Insider]