A week after launch - iPhone 3G still hard to find in Apple, AT&T stores
By Dave Parrack
The new Apple iPhone 3G went on sale on Friday, July 11, and immediately sold out around the world. Sales continued over the weekend, with the new models selling out in most places as soon as new stocks arrived. And that scene is still occurring, even a week after its release.
The release of the iPhone 3G was eagerly awaited, with many Apple fanboys anticipating the new model months in advance. This lead to rumours and speculation surrounding the features, the price, and details of the new iPhone, some of which proved to be true, while other came to nothing.
Now it’s here though, very few seem disappointed, and early sales figures certainly point to that. Apple claims to have sold at least 1 million of the new iPhone 3G smart phones over the first three-day weekend. And according to an article on Fortune, this equates to estimated $330 million profit in that time frame.
It seems two-thirds of punters have opted for the larger, and consequently more-expensive 16GB model. But those are the lucky people who have actually managed to get their hands on one of the new iPhone 3Gs, which isn’t everyone by any means.
According to CNET, AT&T stores in particular are still short of stock, and when they get a new batch in, they sell out faster than Steve Jobs could say “ker-ching”, as the cash register racks up another sale.
CNET reportedly “contacted 50 AT&T stores in 21 cities across 11 different states, and not one had any of the three models of the Apple iPhone 3G”. Most of the stores ran out on Friday, the first day the iPhone 3G went on release. What’s more, because of the huge amount of back-orders still unfulfilled, the chances of anyone being able to walk in off the street and getting their hands on an iPhone are very remote for the foreseeable future.
This is both good and bad news for Apple. Obviously, the company would love to be able to supply everyone with an iPhone as soon as they want one, but at least the demand is there to mean Apple is likely to make a killing for the next few months at least.
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