Apple iPhone 3G S Debut Weekend Ends With Apology
In an e-mail to iPhone 3G S users sent Sunday and viewed by ChannelWeb, Apple said it was still "resolving the issue" related to 3G S upgrades. The full text of the e-mail is as follows:
Dear Apple Customer
Thank you for your recent Apple store order. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay in your iPhone activation.
We are still resolving the issue that was encountered while activating your iPhone with AT&T. Unfortunately, due to system issues and continued high activation volumes, this could take us up to an additional 48 hours to complete.
On Monday, you'll receive an email from Apple with an iTunes Store credit in the amount of $30. We hope you will enjoy this gift and accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this delay has caused.
Thank you for choosing Apple.
Sincerely, Apple Online Store Team
So how did iPhone 3G S fare, sales-wise, over the weekend? It's a little early for hard numbers, but one analyst, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, already has some ballpark estimates to chew over.
In a research note issued Monday morning, Munster writes that he and his team interviewed iPhone 3G S customers in Minneapolis and New York and estimated about 750,000 iPhones were sold in the U.S. in the past three days. Munster also suggests that about 12 percent of those buyers were switching to iPhones from Research In Motion BlackBerrys, and 56 percent were upgrading from an old iPhone. Watch this space as we hear more numbers from the iPhone 3G S' debut weekend.