By Roger Cheng Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Verizon Wireless said Friday that the number of iPhones it sold in the first two hours of availability exceeded the one-day total for any other device’s debut in the carrier’s history.
Verizon Wireless allowed its customers Thursday to preorder the iPhone for one day, ahead of the official Feb. 10 launch. It stopped taking orders that night. While the carrier touted a record for first-day sales, it declined to say how many were ordered.
“Overall, it was a very good day,” Verizon Wireless Chief Executive Dan Mead said in a statement. “Yesterday’s launch set the pace for next week when we open up sales to everyone across America.”
The carrier said that between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. EST, it took more orders of iPhones than its previous blockbuster phones, including Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.’s (MMI) Droid and Research in Motion Ltd.’s (RIMM) Storm, which also benefited from tremendous marketing and hype.
Mead said the company faced “unprecedented customer orders” Thursday.
Demand was stronger than originally expected, said Brian White, an analyst at Ticonderoga Securities.
“We believe this is quite a statement around the pent-up demand from Verizon customers for the iPhone 4 and we believe this speaks to the potential trajectory of demand with Verizon in 2011,” he said.
When the Verizon iPhone launches next week, it will be sold at Verizon Wireless and Apple stores, as well as Best Buy Co. (BBY) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), the carrier said.
The preorder process went relatively smoothly for the carrier, aside from a few error messages and a spike in traffic to Verizon Wireless and Apple’s websites during the first hour of availability. A Verizon Wireless spokeswoman said the carrier dealt directly with customers who encountered problems with their orders. She added the system never shut down, despite early concern that it might have been overwhelmed by the volume of orders.
-By Roger Cheng, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2153; roger.cheng@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 04, 2011 09:22 ET (14:22 GMT)
