AT&T suspends iPhone 4 preorders
The carrier is overwhelmed with advance orders for Apple's latest smartphone and has temporarily stopped taking them.
(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)
Citing extremely high demand, AT&T has been forced to stop taking preorders for Apple's iPhone 4 after just one day.
AT&T has suspended taking advance orders "in order to fulfill the orders we've already received," the company said in a statement. iPhone 4 preorders through AT&T on Tuesday were 10 times higher than the number of iPhone 3GS handsets preordered this time last year.
The carrier's Web site is also informing visitors that AT&T is not currently taking preorders for Apple's new phone, which is set to go on sale June 24. When preorders will resume is not clear.
"The availability of additional inventory will determine if we can resume taking preorders," the carrier said.
On Tuesday the volume of people attempting to order an iPhone 4 to be delivered or picked up on June 24 overwhelmed AT&T's system, causing the online ordering system to crash repeatedly.
By Tuesday night Apple and AT&T had run through their initial round of preorder supply.
Apple said Wednesday that together with its partners, it took orders for 600,000 iPhones on Tuesday, the largest number of preorders it had taken in one day.
This post was updated at 1:25 p.m. PDT.
