Jobs: iPhone 4 launch most successful in Apple's history

by Stevie Smith - Jun 29 2010, 08:00

It would appear the phenomenal brand power attributed to Apple products stands immovable despite continued talk of supposedly hard economic times for the consumer.

Moreover, having recently announced the sale of more than three million iPads within 80 days of the touch-screen tablet’s launch, Cupertino-based Apple Inc. has now revealed that 1.7 million units of the iPhone 4 have been sold just three days after its retail arrival.

Outstripping the one million sales racked up by the iPhone 3GS during its first three days of availability, the new iPhone 4’s popularity clearly caused something of a supply and demand headache for Apple; a shortfall that left many prospective handset buyers disappointed and empty handed on launch day.

“This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history,” trumpeted Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs in a statement. “Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.”

The apology from Jobs comes after U.S. stores carrying the new iPhone 4 smartphone ran out of stock a matter of hours after opening their doors to crowds of excited Apple fans who were queuing across the country in their hundreds of thousands.

Perhaps Apple should have been better prepared for the consumer onslaught, especially when considering that it sold 600,000 units of the iPhone 4 on the very first day it officially began taking online pre-orders for the device.

Apple has said it is working hard to meet demand for the iPhone 4, which is likely to remain high over the coming months as a total of 88 different countries are expected to be selling the phone by September.

Outside of the United States, the fourth iteration of the iconic smartphone is currently available in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan.

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