US cellco AT&T and Apple ran out of stock of Apple’s new iPhone 4 smartphone in the US Wednesday, just one day into the pre-ordering process.
AT&T and Apple opened pre-orders on Tuesday, selling more than 600,000 iPhone 4’s by the end of the day.
AT&T said it has suspended iPhone orders until stocks can be replenished.
“[This was] the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day and was far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions,” said AT&T.
As a result, the carrier said that “many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration” and it formally apologised to inconvenienced customers.
According to technology website, Gizmodo.com the strong demand “collapsed AT&T and Apple servers, which were unable to take orders, took multiple incorrect purchases [and] placed reservations that didn't reserve anything.”
“The problems also resulted in a security breach, with people trying to get into their AT&T's just to land in the wrong customers account,” said the website.
An AT&T insider told Gizmodo that the problems were related to a “server fraud update” that went wrong last weekend.
Pre-ordered devices are now not due to be shipped until July 14, three weeks after the original June 24 launch date.
Meanwhile, queues of up to several hundred people gathered in Japan as pre-ordering for the iPhone 4, offered exclusively by Softbank Mobile, commenced in Japan late on Tuesday, saidAP.
A company spokesperson said that the better-than-forecast demand for the iPhone 4 slowed its website and store reservations.