One For The Record Books: Apple iPhone 4 Sales Top 1.7 Million

600,000 day one pre-orders for the Apple iPhone 4

The staggering amount of sales comes just three days after the official launch of the iPhone 4 last Thursday, June 24. The rapid iPhone 4 sales mark the swiftest selling device in Apple history. The Apple iPhone 4 smashed the launch sales of the original Apple iPhone in 2007, which took about two and a half months to reach 1 million; the iPhone 3G in 2008 and the iPhone 3G S last year, which sold roughly 1 million each in their first three days.

"This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. "Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply."

Apple initially did not have enough supply to meet the startling demand for the Apple iPhone 4. When pre-orders launched on June 15, Apple only honored launch-date delivery for the first day of pre-orders. Customers who pre-ordered after June 15 are expected to receive their smartphones on July 2 or July 14.

AT&T, the Apple iPhone's sole U.S. carrier, also had pre-order and launch struggles. First, AT&T stopped accepting iPhone 4 pre-orders due to server overload. Then, AT&T issued a statement indicating that it would not sell the iPhone 4 on its launch date to customers who didn't reserve or pre-order a device.

Other authorized iPhone retailers, like Wal-Mart, Radio Shack and Best Buy also had short supply of the devices.