Apple said it has sold over 1.7 million iPhone 4’s in the three days since it went on sale.
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said the iPhone 4’s debut was the “most successful product launch in Apple’s history.”
In contrast, Apple sold just 1 million iPhone 3GS smartphones within the first three days of its release last year.
The iPhone 4 went on sale in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan on Thursday, but many stores have run out of stock.
Apple has given no indication when iPhone 4 supplies might catch up.
Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar has previously estimated the firm needs to produce around 4 million units per month to hit target - and cautioned that it will miss due to a shortage of Retina displays.
In the US, AT&T and Apple opened pre-orders June 15, but sold all 600,000 iPhone 4’s in stock by the end of the day.
To counter AT&T’s iPhone 4 exclusivity in the US, Verizon Wireless said it plans to roll out Motorola’s newest Android-enabled device the Droid X.
Verizon and rival US cellcos Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile also plan to launch Samsung’s latest smartphone the Galaxy S smartphone shortly, said the WSJ.
AT&T earlier announced that it would also start selling the Galaxy S this year.
Analysts expect the iPhone to help Apple sell about 36 million iPhones in 12 months to September, up 73% year on year, said the WSJ.
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