News19,135 Articles

July 2, 2007

iPhone: 500,000 sales & counting

Apple's new handset nearly sold out

Jonny Evans, Macworld UK

Apple has sold 525,000 iPhones since the product's US launch last Friday, Reuters reports.

The 6pm launch was marked by queues outside Apple and AT&T retail shops, with iPhone purchases limited to two per customer.

AT&T over the weekend reported that it sold almost all its initial stock of iPhones within hours of introducing the device.

"Virtually all of our stores sold out of the iPhone last night," AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told Channel 4 News.

The LA Times cites analyst Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research, who claims half the Apple stores on the US West Coast sold out of the devices.

Analysts at Piper Jaffray also estimate first weekend sales of half a million handsets.

The device launched to an unprecedented wave of publicity, with wider technology industry news last week subsumed by reports looking at the Apple handset.

A new comScore study claims the hype has been matched by deep interest among US consumers.

It claims that an average of 274,000 iPhone-related searches have taken place each week since the announcement of the product in January.

Search activity peaked in recent weeks, reaching 1.2 million searches in the week ending June 24. This search activity has attracted 2.3 million visits to Apple's website, the report explains.

Approximately 2 per cent of early iPhone purchasers have been hit by problems activating their device, which they must do through iTunes.

AT&T has been working on the problem since it emerged. "We're just looking at everything to get customers activated in a timely fashion," said Siegel, who attributes the problem to the high number of customers trying to activate their phones.

See also

First look: Hands-on with the iPhone

Hackers could unlock iPhone today

The iPhone killers: best products of 2007

iTunes update adds iPhone support

iPhone software aids Amazon shoppers

Tackling the iPhone mob

Free whitepaper: Is social networking really bad for business?

<<newer story | back to index | older story>>

What is this?

Subscribe to PC Advisor now and claim your FREE gift

Keep up to date by adding PC Advisor News to your iGoogle home page or Google Reader


Question of the day!

Does your smartphone replace your need for a laptop when on the move?

Question of the day!

Does your smartphone replace your need for a laptop when on the move?

% of PC Advisor readers agree with you

Yes
TBC
No
TBC

What tasks can your smartphone do that would have traditionally been done on a laptop?

119 characters remaining

Follow the conversation at @SmartphoneFocus

web browsing, search facilities, voip, email, word processing everything RT @Graham_D_C

Mainly email but getting better at spreadsheets etc, RT @IDGdan
Google


Recent reviews

Reviews index


Latest reader comments

Latest reader comments


Top news

News index


Latest blog entries

Blogs index


 Our RSS feeds

Sponsored Content

  • Take the internet to new places with the Nokia N800
    Communicate how you want to, where you want to with instant messaging, email and internet calling. View movies, browse the internet wirelessly and watch TV on the high-resolution screen and listen through high-quality stereo speakers with headphone jack.
    Buy now