The iPhone 4 pre-sale appears to be going quite well, as online AT&T and Apple sites were bogged down with requests. Customers wanting to order the phone from either of the two sites were met with “Try Again Later” messages.
Over at Apple’s website, the white iPhone 4 model was unavailable, but the black iPhone 4 could be had in both the 16GB and 32 GB models. Nevertheless, connections to order the phone were less than reliable.
AT&T’s website produced more of the same throughout the morning. Users wanting to upgrade were told that the site is “experiencing a computing error which prevents us from computing your request.”
AT&T was not available for comment before press time.
Going into a brick-and-mortar AT&T or Apple store won’t be of much help. When contacted via phone, an Apple sales rep at a retail location in Madison, Wisc. said that customers should keep trying online. She said that brick-and-mortar stores were also tied to submitting pre-orders online, and they were experiencing the same problems due to heavy website traffic. iPhone orders cannot be placed over the phone through AT&T. The Apple Help line (1-800-MY-APPLE) was down due to “extremely high call volumes.”
Those who do order the new phone have the option of having it delivered to their door on June 24, or they can wait in line at an Apple store in their area. Apple has promised that those with a pre-order will be served first on launch day.
Perhaps in preparation for today, Apple rolled out a new Apple Store app for iPhone and iPod touch users. The new app, which is free at the App Store, allows users to order new products directly from their iPhone or iPod touch devices. There was no mention of an iPad version.
