BEIJING, July 14 -- AT&T Inc stores had mostly sold out of Apple Inc's new iPhone in the United States by yesterday, two days after thousands lined up to buy the handset.
Apple, seeking to widen its business beyond iPod media players and Macintosh computers, said it still had iPhone models in most of its own shops to sell. The California-based company, which has 187 stores in 38 states across the U.S., is selling it for as little as 199 U.S. dollars.
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Taichiro Nakamura poses with his iPhone 3G purchased near the Softbank Corp flagship store in Tokyo's Omotesando shopping district July 11, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) |
The iPhone 3G, which works with speedier third-generation phone networks, went on sale last Friday in the U.S. and 21 other markets. Apple's partners in the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Japan said many shops ran out on the first day, said Bloomberg News.
AT&T, Apple's exclusive U.S. partner, said most of its 2,000 stores were out of supplies and that it expected new inventory within days.
"The Apple retail store likely has your iPhone 3G in stock," Apple told visitors on its Website. "Shipments of iPhone 3G arrive most days."
Apple was out of all three models in 55 stores, according to a tally posted on its Website yesterday. That includes outlets in Fresno, California; Victor, New York; Cherry Hill, New Jersey; Madison, Wisconsin; and Knoxville, Tennessee. Apple's lone stores in Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico and Rhode Island were out of supplies, leaving buyers there with no iPhones to buy.
Black best
Shoppers seem to prefer the black, 16-gigabyte model, which sells for 299 dollars, based on Apple's tally. The company is also selling a 16-gigabyte model in white. The 8-gigabyte handset, priced at 199 dollars, is only available in black, according to Apple's site. Customers must sign up for a two-year contract with AT&T at the time of purchase.
The New York store on Fifth Avenue, the only shop that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said it will have the Web-surfing handset available. So will Apple's other New York City stores in SoHo and on West 14th Street.
Customers shopping at the Fifth Avenue store between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Saturday were unable to buy the phone. AT&T says it routinely does maintenance on its computers during that time, preventing users from signing up for service.
The company is "working on a solution to enable sales to still occur during this window," said AT&T spokesman Michael Coe. "We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused for our customers."
AT&T and online Apple fan sites said the first day saw glitches linking the iPhone to Apple's iTunes service, the last step in the activation process.
(Source: Shanghai Daily)
