After unprecedented pre-orders for the iPhone 4 crashed servers and had both Apple and AT&T officials scrambling, the wait is finally over for some who managed to navigate the online sites to get one of most hyped and anticipated devices in consumer electronics history.
As Enterprise Mobile Today reports, an unknown number of customers began receiving their coveted iPhone 4s a couple days ahead of the official release date.
The iPhone 4 is set to be Apple’s biggest launch yet, with 600,000 units sold, the biggest pre-order ever, according to Apple. Apple and AT&T opened for pre-orders on June 15 and it turned into a mess, with AT&T servers failing, timing out, pulling incorrect customer data, making double orders and cancelling some orders.
AT&T announced the day after pre-orders opened that it was sold out due to demand being 10 times that of the prior phone, the iPhone 3GS. On Tuesday, AT&T announced that non-pre-order sales will begin on June 29 and come on a first-come, first-served basis. As inventory sells out, AT&T will offer to have the phone delivered to the customer.
Christmas comes this week for iPhone users as Apple launches the iPhone 4 on Thursday, June 24. For a lucky group, those who pre-ordered direct from Apple and had it sent to their homes rather than picking it from an AT&T or Apple store, their iPhone is going to arrive a day or two early.
Gadget and mobile phone blogs lit up late on Monday with reader reports that they had received notification from Apple their phone would arrive on Wednesday, June 23 via FedEx instead. Now there are additional reports of people getting their iPhone two days early. One of them was Sam Altman, president of iPhone developer Loopt.
There was a bit of confusion on blogs as to whether or not people could activate the phones. At least one person on MacRumors.com claims he did active it. Others have said they could not. A spokesperson for AT&T said that people receiving their phones can indeed activate them when they arrive.
