Apple's IPhone Sells Out at Most AT&T Stores, Swamping Network
By Connie Guglielmo
July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc.'s U.S. debut of the iPhone drew thousands of shoppers over the weekend, emptying most of AT&T Inc.'s inventory and causing network glitches as the flood of customers began activating the device.
Shoppers snapped up as many as 200,000 iPhones the first day after the device went on sale June 29, according to Global Equities Research. While it was still available at all 164 Apple stores yesterday, AT&T said most of its 1,800 stores no longer had the phone in stock. AT&T is the only mobile-phone service that works with the iPhone.
``A lot of our stores have sold out,'' said Mark Siegel, a spokesman for San Antonio-based AT&T, the largest U.S. wireless service. ``We're restoring our inventory as fast as we can.''
The sales met the expectations of most analysts, giving Apple a foothold in the mobile-phone industry. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs is counting on the device to become Apple's third major source of revenue, alongside the iPod media player and the Macintosh computer. The iPhone combines a Web-surfing phone with the iPod.
Some buyers had problems activating the phones because of the large number signing up at the same time, Siegel said. There also were delays switching customers from other carriers.
Wozniak's Test
``Some of my friends are having activation difficulties,'' Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who got in line at 4 a.m. on June 29 to buy his iPhone, said in an e-mail interview.
He successfully activated his phone and said he's impressed with the software and how the device serves up Web pages. ``I was going to only use the iPhone as a test phone at first, but I'm ready now to make it my primary number,'' Wozniak said.
Apple stores sold an estimated 128,000 iPhones on the first day, while AT&T stores sold 72,000, said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with San Francisco-based Global Equities.
The stores stayed open until midnight June 29. Customers could buy one phone at AT&T's stores and two at Apple's outlets. Shoppers can check Apple's Web site to see if the iPhone is in stock at any of its stores.
There's a wait of two to four weeks for customers who order the phone online from Apple, according to the site.
The iPhone comes in two versions: a 4-gigabyte model that sells for $499 and an 8-gigabyte version that costs $599. The phone requires a two-year service contract with AT&T.
Shoppers interviewed at Apple's stores in New York and California favored the 8-gigabyte model.
``For $100 more, you get double the storage,'' said engineer Rick Evans, 50, who bought his iPhone on opening night at Apple's store in Stanford, California. ``It's a no-brainer.''
Miles Barken, a shopper in Santa Monica, California, bought the 4-gigabyte version after the other model sold out.
``I was having trouble deciding between the two of them anyway,'' he said. ``This just made the decision easier for me.''
EBay Sales
The iPhone is already selling at a premium on the auction site EBay Inc., despite it still being in stock at Apple's stores. The phone has sold on EBay for an average of $978.75, the company said.
Jobs said last week that Apple tried to estimate demand and increased manufacturing. ``We've taken our best guess, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it ain't enough,'' Jobs said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Apple's investors are betting that Jobs, 52, can deliver on a pledge to capture a least 1 percent of the mobile-phone market by selling 10 million iPhones in 2008. Anticipation helped propel the company's market value above $100 billion in May for the first time.
The Cupertino, California, company's shares rose $1.48 to $122.04 on June 29 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
Apple's annual profit has surged to almost $2 billion from $65 million in the past five years, while sales more than tripled to about $20 billion.
To contact the reporter on this story: Connie Guglielmo in San Francisco at cguglielmo1@bloomberg.net
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