Verizon Wireless has not stated how many iPhone units were pre-ordered before they suspended pre-sale orders. We cannot independently confirm our source’s number, hence the “rumor” designation.
Earlier today, Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer for Verizon Wireless, said in a statement, “This was an exciting day. In just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history. And, when you consider these initial orders were placed between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., it is an incredible success story. It is gratifying to know that our customers responded so enthusiastically to this exclusive offer – designed to reward them for their loyalty.”
Daniel Eran Dilger reports for AppleInsider, “Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities has indicated to AppleInsider that the number is likely to be much higher [than Abramsky’s 100,000]… AT&T first day preorders for iPhone 4 last June, when the device was new, only amounted to 600,000. That figure included initial manufacturing issues related with the new model (including Apple’s failure to deliver white models as planned), and was also distorted by the complete meltdown of both AT&T’s and Apple’s online ordering systems. At the time, Apple noted in a press release that the total 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.'”
“While analysts have consistently predicted the Verizon’s sales will pale in comparison to AT&T’s iPhone 4 sales over the last year, Apple may still be able to exceed its last year’s launch of iPhone 4 this year with Verizon because of this pent up demand and its now well-honed manufacturing experience in building iPhone 4, following global sales over the last two quarters of more than 30 million iPhones, the majority of which have been iPhone 4 models,” Dilger reports.
Along with much more info, in a graphic in their full article, AppleInsider also matches our source by estimating pre-orders for Verizon iPhone 4 units at one million.
Full article here.
Loyal to what!? Permanently paying you?
< designed to reward them for their loyalty>
What a smarmy little fart huffer.
Verizon scoring the iPhone has nothing to-do with rewarding customer loyalty, it has everything to do with a. preventing the on-going ass whoppin’ that the iPhone/AT-T deal has being laying on them and b. making $
Given that it’s some old codger sitting in a backlot in Verizon’s HQ transcribing web orders by hand into a dog-eared notebook, they probably processed 5 orders in the entire 2 hours.
I’m just happy I got my 2 ordered. Order # 4628! Supposedly will show up on Monday. I dont have high hopes of that though. Will probably het held at the fedex facility until the 10th.
Whoa! Verizon, “welcome to the social” !
Just watch what happens here… Verizon’s advertising and media hype for Verizon iPhone has created a new wave of consumers who are interested in getting an iPhone for the first time. But they will be confronted with a long waiting list on Day One of sales, based on what happened with the pre-orders (just to existing Verizon customers). So what will a lot of them do? They’ll go get one from ATT, which should have much better availability at this time of year.
And Apple anticipated this scenario all along. That’s the purpose of the recent “two is better than one” commercial, showing a Verizon iPhone and ATT iPhone, side by side. It’s Apple “sneaky” way of telling customers (without upsetting Verizon), if you can’t find a Verizon iPhone and you don’t want to wait, just get one from ATT instead. Apple wants to sell an iPhone; it doesn’t really matter if it’s Verizon or ATT. Bravo to Apple.
Er….that should have been “get”…
..”we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history”..
Does any body remembers what was the higher number in sales for verizon before the iphone? Android? Palm? BlackBerry?
Do you think Abramsky cares? Even if VERIZON announces that it indeed sold a million, Abramsky will just say he grosslymiscalculated but he provided cover and probably saved lots of folks who were exposed due to written calls.
Will he lose his license, of course not.
Someone check to see if there was a large office party with cristal at Verizon HQ on Friday.
That’s more like it. A 100k sellout just didn’t make any sense.
Bloodbath.
100,000 Verizon iPhones wouldn’t even be enough for pre-order Verizon subscribers in New York City. Abramsky’s nuts. I’m sure there are nearly as many consumers on Verizon that want the iPhone as there are on AT&T.
Apple is the master of marketing management. They’d never let the Verizon launch have a first day less than the last AT&T launch. And Verizon would want Apple to have enough to crow about crushing AT&T on the launch as well.
I’m sure we’ll hear the number from one or both of these public companies, and I’m quite sure it will be a million.
OK, so these customers haven’t gotten their phones yet, and they won’t actually be activated until they receive them, but these will be added to additional sales on launch day to people visiting Verizon and Apple stores….
So, let me get this straight — in two hours of preordering, in the middle of the night, before the system was closed — more were sold than all Android devices sell worldwide in three whole days? That’s what, 36 times the global Android rate, on one carrier in one country? And launch day hasn’t even begun yet…
Unless I am missing something, VERIZON & ATT are self serving, selfish and seem to have forgotten to say anything good about the product that is or will soon be making them rich. How unprofessional can they be?
阳光普照狮子犬
Mike Abramsky has a horrible horrible track record. Just google him.
He doesn’t know jack. Mike Abramsky is a joke.
Mine is scheduled to arrive Tuesday. Yay!
Hasn’t Verizon ever release information relating to orders for Android phones launched in the past? When it says this is their most successful launch ever, those old figures provide a benchmark for making estimates.
I can’t call where I read it, but I believe Apple has been busy manufacturing the CDMA iPhones for months. So regardless of the number sold on Thursday, the numbers will be huge over the next 7 weeks … at which time Apple and Verizon will reveal the actual figures in their quarterly earnings reports.
If I were running Apple, I would have limited the number of iPhones Verizon could sell on Thursday. News of a sellout in two hours attracts attention to the product, and will also contribute to long lines at Verizon stores next week … another marketing coup. So let’s not be disappointed if it is later revealed that only 200,000 or 300,000 iPhones were sold last Thursday.
The real question is What phone are those preordering giving up to get the iPhone? Are they folks who never had a “smart phone” before, are they Android users, Nokia, Samsung? Going to be some very very interesting consumer surveys coming out.
You could probably track this by looking at the number of eBay postings for various model phones the week before and week after the preorders opened!
Verizon gets the iphone–let the crashing begin–as in their system
Welcome to the party pal!