Verizon Wireless says its first day of taking online orders for the iPhone produced record sales, and it’s stopped taking orders until Wednesday. The cell phone carrier says that in just two hours Thursday morning, between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., more customers ordered the phone than in the full day of any previous phone launch. The company didn’t specify how many iPhones were ordered Thursday. It halted orders at 8:10 p.m. that day and says it will resume taking orders at 3 a.m. Wednesday; it’s only taking orders from current Verizon subscribers. The phone will be available in stores for the public Thursday, but supplies are likely to be tight.
AT&T Inc. had been the exclusive carrier of Apple Inc.’s popular iPhone in the U.S. It activated 15.2 million of them last year. Analyst estimates for Verizon iPhone sales this year vary widely, from 5 million to 13 million. Analysts expect the sales to Verizon subscribers will be strong, but the big question is how many iPhone buyers will be jumping ship from other carriers. Barclays Capital analyst James Ratcliffe wrote in a research note today that he had been expecting AT&T would still be able to add a net 250,000 subscribers on contract-based plans in the first quarter, but news of the strong iPhone pre-orders on Verizon prompted him to lower that forecast to zero.
