Apple today announced that it had taken over 600,000 pre-orders yesterday, the first day that customers could place their orders, for the upcoming iPhone 4. Apple’s full statement reads:
Yesterday Apple and its carrier partners took pre-orders for more than 600,000 of Apple’s new iPhone 4. It 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. Many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration. We apologize to everyone who encountered difficulties, and hope that they will try again or visit an Apple or carrier store once the iPhone 4 is in stock.
AT&T issued its own statement indicating that iPhone 4 orders were 10 times higher than those for the iPhone 3GS last year. As a result, AT& suspended pre-orders today to fulfill orders taken so far. AT&T did not indicate when it would resume taking pre-orders.
Neither Apple or AT&T commented on rumours that problems with an AT&T server software upgrade were the reason for a number of system issues yesterday, including a number of security breaches that may have exposed customer data.