Not surprising really, but Verizon Wireless has sold out of iPhones for pre-order. Verizon stopped taking pre-orders of the iconic wireless device at 8:10 p.m. EST on Thursday. The company called it the most successful first day of sales in its history.
“This was an exciting day,” said Dan Mead, president and CEO of Verizon Wireless. “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.”
Mead hinted that customers will have another opportunity at being among the nation’s first to own an iPhone 4 on the Verizon network when the company starts selling them on Feb. 10 at 7 a.m.: “Yesterday’s launch set the pace for next week, when we open up sales to everyone across America.”
Early Risers Win
The fact that the Verizon iPhone 4 went on sale at 3 a.m. and sold out so quickly is telling, Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg said. People set their alarms to get up between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. to get their pre-order in, which he said is indicative of unbelievably strong demand.
“We are talking about a phone that is seven months old. There aren’t that many phones seven months old that are this worthy of note,” Gartenberg said. “That demonstrates just how deep Apple is in the hearts and minds of consumers — they are willing to get up in the middle of the night to get this phone on this network even though it’s not a new phone.”
Gartenberg said the phenomenon is especially interesting in a world where consumers sometimes forget about new phones within six hours. For all these reasons and more, he expects to see strong…