LOS ANGELES — Hundreds of thousands of customers lined up Thursday at Apple Stores, hoping to nab the elusive new iPhone 4.
By the end of the day, Apple's latest iPhone was all but sold out across the U.S., including Chicago, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., Miami and Charlotte.
Best Buy said it was sold out; RadioShack said it hoped to replenish its stock for the weekend. Wal-Mart said sales were "brisk" and that it is working to get more phones. "They can't get here soon enough," said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien.
Apple's exclusive wireless partner, AT&T, won't sell the phone to walk-in customers until Tuesday.
Apple spokesman Steve Dowling wouldn't say how quickly stores would get replenished. "The demand for iPhone 4 is off the charts," he said. "We are working hard to get them to everyone as quickly as possible."
Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, says it will take about a month for stores to get fully stocked.
Making the shopping experience tougher: Apple and AT&T began taking reservations for the phone on June 15. They received so many that by the end of the day they stopped taking orders for June 24 pickup. Apple's website now promises delivery by July 14.
Apple says it sold 600,000 in early orders, and Munster predicts sales of 1 million to 1.5 million phones by Saturday. The new iPhone starts at $199 with a two-year contract or renewal.
Munster calls the launch the "biggest" he's seen for a consumer tech device. What happened? AT&T relaxed its qualifying rules for upgrades, Apple had a hot, cool phone and current iPhone customers salivated for it, says Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies. "It was perfect timing for an upgrade," he says.
Randy Cruz, 25, got in line at a Los Angeles Apple Store at 10 p.m. Wednesday, determined to pick up her new iPhone before going off to work. Stores opened at 7 a.m.
She had damaged her old iPhone two months ago by spilling water on it, and waited for the new model.
"I can work from it, and have fun," she says. Cruz was lucky in that she got right in; hundreds of others lined up on all sides of the shopping mall all the way to busy Beverly Boulevard.
Analyst Munster says Apple should have staggered the pickup time over several days.
"It's physically impossible to jam more people into those stores," Munster says. "But putting people with confirmed reservations on line for six hours is just bad form."
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