AT&T announces record 200,000 iPhone 4S pre-orders in first 12 hours

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
AT&T, Apple's original wireless carrier partner for the iPhone, announced on Friday that it had received more than 200,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4S in the first 12 hours on offer, making it the most successful iPhone launch ever for the company.



The carrier said in a statement that it had seen "extraordinary demand" for Apple's new smartphone. "It's obvious customers like AT&T's 4G network, which is the only one that lets their iPhone download twice as fast and talk and surf simultaneously," the company wrote.



However, AT&T's claim is subject to some dispute. According to an alleged leak earlier Friday, the company is "working with Apple" to change the network indicator for the iPhone 4S on its network to read 4G. "Since iPhone 4S is an HSPA+ device, our customers will get 4G speeds from day one. Only AT&T has this unique network advantage," the document read.



Though Apple added a faster 14.4Mbps download capabilities to the iPhone 4S, AT&T is not actually set up to take full advantage of those faster HSDPA speeds. AT&T said in a public document last month that "current HSDPA devices commonly support peak rates of 3.6 or 7.2 Mbps, though typical user rates are lower than this."



It has been reported that AT&T is claiming the iPhone 4S is an HSPA+ and 4G device on a technicality. TiPB's Rene Ritchie has noted that devices must simply support "any 3GPP release 7 feature" to be classified as HSPA+. Since the Qualcomm chipset found in the iPhone 4S uses 3GPP features, it technically counts as an HSPA+ radio, despite the fact that the handset can't reach the 21Mbps HSPA+ speeds that had been rumored to arrive on the device.



Both AT&T and T-Mobile have sometimes advertised their HSPA+ networks as having 4G speeds, though the Long-Term Evolution is widely accepted as the 'true' 4G network.







Given that pre-orders for the iPhone 4S were also offered on Sprint and Verizon, Apple is expected to have smashed previous records for the iPhone set last year.



Last year's iPhone 4 launch exceeded the previous iPhone 3GS demand by a factor of 10, causing a meltdown of AT&T's systems.



In fact, AT&T experienced its own problems this year, as well. A number of AppleInsider readers reported being unable to successfully complete pre-orders when they began at midnight on Friday. Also, both Apple and AT&T were late in initiating pre-orders for the iPhone 4S.



The iPhone 4S goes on sale on Oct. 14 in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. The handset, unveiled by Apple on Tuesday, features the A5 processor, an 8-megapixel camera, an new antenna design and Siri voice recognition technology.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 86
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,949member
    I have insider info that "hundreds" of iPhones will be delivered to each ATT retail store. I wonder how many stores there are? I had hoped to walk in on Friday and pick one up, but they may all be bespoke at this point. Oh well, I can wait a bit longer.
  • Reply 2 of 86
    And.... now they show 14-21 days for delivery. I ordered 2 around 4am Eastern, but I want to order 1 more.



    Oh, and those two iPhones I ordered -- they're showing up as "Back Ordered".
  • Reply 3 of 86
    I have a simple solution ...



    Change the indicator to "HSPA+" when using that network protocol. I think to call it 4G is stretching the truth a bit. The rest should be left to AT&T to begin an ad campaign to educate users regarding the advantages of HSPA+.
  • Reply 4 of 86
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    AT&T, Apple's original wireless carrier partner for the iPhone, announced on Friday that it had received more than 200,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4S in the first 12 hours on offer, making it the most successful iPhone 4S launch ever for the company.



    just how many iPhone 4S launches have they had?
  • Reply 5 of 86
    slapppyslapppy Posts: 331member
    Simply awesome!
  • Reply 6 of 86
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    This is their eighth - if you don't count the first twenty-three that they had...



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MomentsofSanity View Post


    just how many iPhone 4S launches have they had?



  • Reply 7 of 86
    jay-tjay-t Posts: 39member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by GTR View Post


    This is their eighth - if you don't count the first twenty-three that they had...



    8th iPhone 4S? Sure not but iPhone most certainly
  • Reply 8 of 86
    conradjoeconradjoe Posts: 1,887member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MomentsofSanity View Post


    just how many iPhone 4S launches have they had?



    Gotta love AI!



    But they fixed it after you posted, which may be a first for them.
  • Reply 9 of 86
    Obviously, these number is at the expense of other countries. UK waiting time the last time I check is 1-2 weeks.
  • Reply 10 of 86
    Apple is doomed.?



    Seriously, in anybody surprised?!
  • Reply 11 of 86
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    And Sprint is now sold out of all 16 GB iPhone 4S's.



    Apple once again kicking ass!, proving all of the naysayers, trolls and Debbie Downers wrong!
  • Reply 12 of 86
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    Apple is doomed.?



    Seriously, in anybody surprised?!



    Not me but AAPL should be through the firkin' roof ... \
  • Reply 13 of 86
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ConradJoe View Post


    Gotta love AI!



    But they fixed it after you posted, which may be a first for them.



    So they did. I suddenly feel so much more powerful...
  • Reply 14 of 86
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    And Sprint is now sold out of all 16 GB iPhone 4S's.



    Apple once again kicking ass!, proving all of the naysayers, trolls and Debbie Downers wrong!



    And they are doing it with an old look which is using that stupid and fatuous external antenna design. Won't they ever learn¡
  • Reply 15 of 86
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    24 Countries and 100 carriers later, people better chill out and realize that tens of millions of customers to be and presently want this phone.
  • Reply 16 of 86
    piotpiot Posts: 1,346member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    And they are doing it with an old look which is using that stupid and fatuous external antenna design. Won't they ever learn¡



    I, honestly, can't wait for Consumer Reports review.
  • Reply 17 of 86
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    And Sprint is now sold out of all 16 GB iPhone 4S's.



    Apple once again kicking ass!, proving all of the naysayers, trolls and Debbie Downers wrong!



    I am very interested in Sprint's sales numbers for a variety of reasons. I am sure they will release them over the next couple of weeks.
  • Reply 18 of 86
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    ***Sigh***



    My sarcasm was obviously not detected...



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jay-t View Post


    8th iPhone 4S? Sure not but iPhone most certainly



  • Reply 19 of 86
    pokepoke Posts: 506member
    Apparently 200,000 liked the old design.



    In hindsight, the redesign rumour was very silly. For example, the aluminum case wouldn't have worked unless their was a plastic area for signal (like the iPad and iPod touch). It seems unlikely now that Apple would move away from the external antenna design. I think Gruber might be right: future iPhones will look very similar to the iPhone 4. The display will stay the same size. They might get thinner if they can figure out how to do the camera optics. The material used for the back might change. The touch sensitive button might be real iPhone 5 feature. But really, if you accept that this is how Apple is going to do the antenna going forward and that they have no interest in making the display bigger, it doesn't seem like the design can change dramatically going forward.
  • Reply 20 of 86
    nkalunkalu Posts: 315member
    This is great news.

    I hope the negative commentators will read this and hide their heads in shame.
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