Apple iPhone Hits Close To 500,000 At Weekend “Box Office”
Apple’s iPhone easily met and exceeded the hype for one of the most anticipated gadgets of all time. According to reports, Apple sold upwards of 500,000 iPhones over the weekend. Apple’s largest stores were able to sell 1000 iPhones per hour. Apple didn’t release numbers as of Monday morning, but their company has stated that its goal is to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.
Another bit of good news for the concern was that according to at&t Wireless (formally Cingular), the exclusive wireless phone provider for the iPhone, less than 2 percent of the buyers had problems activating their service. “We’re extraordinary pleased on how things have gone,” said Mark Siegel, spokesman for the wireless unit of AT&T.
Munster said 100 percent of Apple Stores had the phones available on Saturday and 84 percent had them available on Sunday. The Apple Web site showed mixed availability for the phones at its various Apple Store retail outlets nationwide heading into Monday, though, and virtually all of the 1,800 retail locations for AT&T were out of the phones heading into Monday. The Apple Web site said the availability listings for its stores were current as of 9 p.m. Sunday.
Only a few stores have reportedly sold out of the iPhone nationwide, with the West coast being the most depleted. Except for a couple of stores in San Francisco, every other store in California did not have any stock available on Sunday. However, on the East coast, the story was quite different with most Apple stores having plenty of stock.
The iPhone’s substantial price was enough to cool demand in America’s bread basket with only Austin, Texas reportedly being sold out of the device. Customers who purchased the iPhone through the Apple.com website were informed that their iPhone would ship between 2 to 4 weeks, but Apple is known to declare shipping dates conservatively and in reality, most of these customers should have their new mobiles in about 10 days.
