AT&T announced in a press release today that last night’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus preorders had set a new record for iPhone sales. As usually happens when a new Apple device goes on sale, the carrier’s backend was so overwhelmed with incoming orders that in stopped responding for most customers, forcing Apple to move to a reservation system that waited several hours until the carrier systems were available before completing many orders.
Unfortunately the company hasn’t given any indication of exactly how many units were sold during last night’s frenzy. Apple reportedly ordered a combined 80 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units, which was then distributed to Apple Stores, carrier outlets, and other retailers. That 80 million figure is in and of itself a new record, and supplies of the 6 Plus had started running dry at most carriers and Apple’s own store only a few short hours after the phone became available.
Apple also declared that both phones had set sales records for its online store. The AT&T press release is below:
DALLAS, Sept. 12, 2014 — “It was a terrific day for our customers and us. This is our biggest iPhone, pre-order launch day ever,” said Glenn Lurie, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility. “When you combine our best-pricing, the nation’s most reliable 4G LTE network, and a service experience that leads the industry, iPhone customers who choose AT&T win.”
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Slate has a good article on why Apple’s numbers may be suspect.
Link to it or you’re lying.
And while we’re on the subject of Slate, here’s an article from them on why you’re probably going to want the Apple Watch:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/09/09/apple_watch_a_smartwatch_you_don_t_need_but_might_want_anyway.html
Google it yourself.
ATT says it set records but doesn’t release any data to support that.
But still they issue a news release with that claim.
Does anyone trust ATT? Such an upstanding company.
It wouldn’t make an unsubstantiated claim just for publicity, would it.
Let’s hope Apple doesn’t promote misleading sales figures AGAIN!
“… a lot of the iPhones Apple sold were bought by wireless carriers, not consumers.”
http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/09/24/the_truth_about_apple_s_iphone_sales.html
I’m sure the crowd here at 9to5ignorance will gang up on Slate and the analyst mentioned, who probably knows a little more than hero-worshipping sheep.
And you really might want to look up the Slate article titled “Why Apple Pay May Succeed Where Google Wallet Failed.”
Good bet time reading.
Bed*
Google Wallet was a mess, but it did help the industry learn about how throwing technology at a problem doesn’t magically make it good.
I’m interested for sure to see how Apple Pay does!
Apple numbers are never ‘suspect’. The numbers that are suspect are always Microsoft and Samsung ones because they have millions of devices on shelves and counting them as sold. For example, there was an article on this topic about Samsung here on 9to5mac and you should read that how they lied and then tried to cover it. Shame on them!
But, then he’d have nothing to troll about. Oh, wit – I’m wrong – a troll’s a troll!
Apple does the same thing.it counts phones as sold once they get to the carrier stores.
@herb02135go No, Apple doesn’t do that. Samsung and other Android makers are doing that. Apple is counting a phone when the person have activated the phone which you must open the box to activate device. Now you can go and play with your own shit, idiot! By the way how much you’ve take from loser companies to come to an Apple blog and make the comments that a person with the lowest IQ would do?
This herb guy needs to pre-order a life. Since most of us already have them, it shouldn’t be too long of a waiting period.
Still waiting on that link…
While on the subject of shady behavior: how do you get paid? per post, per day? How can I get on that deal?
Is it just Samsung, or is Google and HTC in it as well?
It’s Apple.
I just am appalled by the lack of independent thought by those who post here on behalf of Apple.
Herb’s Independent Thoughts – brought to you by Samsung(TM). Now with more holes than the back cover of a Galaxy S5.
but all the carriers/sellers of iphones are claiming record numbers. it’s not just apple.
People on Twitter are saying they’re receiving text messages that AT&T cancelled their order without a reason and state they can’t get a hold of sales support. Some have reported getting multiple text messages about orders being cancelled when they only placed one. Something’s going on with their system.
Yes and I one of those people. AT&T is a joke. I cancelled my order with AT&T and ordered my phone with appla
They canceled my order to. After they charged me for a product I hadn’t received yet to.
I ordered my iPhone 6 plus at 3:10am, received a confirmed email stating that I will receive the iPhone in 7-10 days. Then in a few hours I have received another email that it been pushed 21-28 days. One hour after that I have received email it been pushed 30 to 42 days. I was like what the hell!!! I noticed it have been happening to all AT&T preorders. So I went to AT&T to find out about September 19th release date for the iPhone 6 Plus, they said they will get any 6+ on the 19th. I asked when? In November. Do you know Apple website went up at 5am and they had all versions available to be delivered by the 19th, and I screwed up by deciding to use AT&T preorders.
Ok, going back to my AT&T store visit, I told them cancel my order and make sure upgrade is available right now. They said are you sure? I looked at them with such disgust and said, “you have trouble delivering my request? Do it!” They did it. I order the my 6+ with Apple through the Apple Store app.
Recommendation for any AT&T preorders:
If you preorder the 6+ with AT&T, I strongly recommend you to cancel your order and purchase for apple instead. AT&T will be starting their orders in Nov… Apple back order is 3 weeks or less! Make sense! AT&T will try to blame Apple when Apple is not the blame, because Apple do not run AT&T warehouse. Now when you order from Apple it states 3-4 weeks, honestly look at it 2-3 weeks, because Apple have tendency to get orders out rapidly before schedule. DO NOT LISTEN to AT&T reps when they say preorder with them, because they want your money instead of going to Apple. The funny thing is they said to me, they will not have enough. I said the device is made by them, if they run out who will make more send off? Apple! You are the last to get the orders.
> Apple reportedly ordered a combined 80 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units, which was then distributed to Apple Stores, carrier outlets, and other retailers. That 80 million figure is in and of itself a new record, and supplies of the 6 Plus had started running dry at most carriers and Apple’s own store only a few short hours after the phone became available.
Umm, no, Apple placed an order with its suppliers to produce 80 million orders for the year does not equal 80 million units have been shipped out to all stores and carriers. It will take several months for Apple to ship that amount globally.
I’d suspect we’re looking at 10-20 million for the first weekend alone with a weekly refillment of a few million.
“Apple reportedly ordered a combined 80 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units, which was then distributed to Apple Stores, carrier outlets, and other retailers”
Most of these 80m(if that many) have not been produced yet. The 80m quoted in the questionable analyst report was for launch until the end of the year. Lucky to have 10-15m ready to go for launch
Had multiple problems this morning trying to deal with ATT. Order not processed.. Order processed and received a notice from them … a few minutes later they declined my credit card. My daughter and wife also had major problems ordering with multiple emails contradicting each other. Something major broke here?
AT&T reps have confirmed that I am eligible for upgrades, yet the online system keeps giving me errors saying it cannot verify upgrade online at the moment, so here I am still waiting to preorder… :(
I recommend you get fixed your issue fixed with AT&T, then purchase the phone with apple. Avoid purchasing with any carrier.
I must say that they greatly improved the capacity this year.
My order went right through. No issues of any kind, unlike two years ago when they clearly didn’t have the capacity to smoothly handle all of the orders.
All of my colleagues at work who are scheduled to upgrade had good response too. I didn’t hear one person say anything bad, so maybe these issues are a regional issue with a CDN node, or maybe some areas are getting many more orders than expected.
I as well. As with every year since the first I phone. If people want to preorder then u have to expect the mass orders causing a jam. The typical errors and cannot process order. You fight through have patience and it works. Don’t pre order if u don’t understand there gonna be some bumps in the process, wait till the dust settles and quit bitching.
This is not my first preorder with AT&T. AT&T have been trying to get all apple 6 orders, because at&t reps have called my mobile reminding me to order with them prior to preorder date. Radio shack have done this also! AT&T are looking for numbers, but cannot meet demands.
Built, AT&T’s website, yep. On east coast, right around 3:04 am. I was so happy and surprised I could order on ATT’s site, while Apple’s was messed up, I thought I had the game beat. Oh well, hopefully they are just being overly conservative in their estimate. I ordered the same phone from apple app today and will just cancel/refuse the phone that arrives 2nd.
Time research your order. If you have ordered your device on time, go online and look up your order using your web order number. View the shipping details, I bet it have been pushed, because AT&T stores already confirmed all orders have been pushed. Therefore I know No one will get delivery within 7-10 deliveries from AT&T.
Last time I ordered an iPhone from AT&T the estimated delivery date was very pessimistic. They said it would arrive in weeks, but it arrived on day 1.
So if they gave you a distant date, I would take their estimate with a grain of salt.
Like I mention before, AT&T already confirmed delays. iPhone 6 mid October and 6+ set in Nov.
Hope you’re right. I had my order for + 3 minutes after preorders opened up.
You did it with whom? AT&T or Apple?
After waiting for the Apple site to open, I went to the AT&T site. I ordered (2) 6Plus units in Space Grey – one with 64GB and one with 128 GB.
I received confirmation emails from AT&T Premier a couple of hours later – and decided to check the credit card site to see if AT&T made the charges: sure enough, there were 2 pending charges – $1.00 each. Several hours later I got a call from that credit card fraud protection unit, asking if I had made those purchases.
In the early afternoon I checked the credit card site and the full amounts had been charged, but were still listed as pending.
I checked the credit card site this morning – and there are neither full charges nor pending charges from AT&T, but the AT&T site still shows the phones as on order, but still no ship dates.
I’ll be checking very carefully over the next couple of days – and I have screen shots of everything – just in case AT&T decides to “lose” my order.
Pending means the card isn’t charged till it ships (or until you sign for the FedX delivery). I’ve noticed that pending status lasts only for a day or two, but the order isn’t actually canceled—it’s just not displayed by the vendor.
Exactly! That happened to me when I ordered an iPhone 5s last year. The amount on my bank account was pending and they never charged me later so I called AT&T and they explained. I canceled my order because I got tired of waiting for it to ship, but to be fair I ordered on the monday after the friday when the pre-orders started, so it was my bad.
Comments I am seeing just proves that you should deal with the carrier as little as possible. I personally have not had any problems with AT&T customer support, but sales, both on the phone and in person is a different story. Its always a horrible experience, simply because the sales people don’t care about anything but their commission.
So, I always buy my iPhone either at an Apple Store (which I did with the original iPhone and the iPhone 3GS), or online at the Apple Store. Its always a smooth, first class experience. And if something goes wrong with the phone, its much easier to deal with Apple than to try and get support from a 3rd party retailer or the carrier.
I had just the opposite issue when I owned Iphones.
The carrier was great but the store experiences were awful. They treat you like you are doing them a favor.
when I ordered my phone, I somehow got signed up for the monthly ATT leasing deal. The full amount financed is mind-blowing and I really want to change my order! I have not been able to get a hold of customer service to correct the problem and at this point, I just want to pay for the phone outright. The apple website says I can change my order, so far, I have not been able to access anything on the ATT side of the deal..
So problem solved, or it will be when I go to the apple store to get the phone switched on. I drove into the nearest Apple store and explained my situation, and they said that the contracts are not finalized until my phone arrives. At that point we can drop the financing plan and I can purchase the phone outright with a new 2 year contract. That is what I wanted in the first place.
Having just recently acquired an iPhone 5s – after drowning my 5 in mangrove channel – I’m thinking the 6 might be bit of financial overkill at moment, which affords me the luxury of sitting on the beach watching everyone else struggle in the new-release riptide. I’ve discovered that (most) all things come to he who sits and waits for the tide to gently rise. The current and predictable chaos surrounding the roll-out does make me wonder why anyone questioned the rocky growth of the ACA Healthcare Exchanges. If the likes of the Apple, AT&T, T-Mobile (also struggling badly) and Verizon (anyone hear from Verizon?) ordering systems, presumably designed to, and in fact do, deal with millions of customers on a daily basis are groaning under demand for a new phone, elegant and desirable though it may be then it seems by comparison Healthcare.gov should be given a Webby Award – or something. :) For now I decided that rather than invest in the iDevice – although I really want one – I’d just double sown on my APPL stock holding.
Well my hiccups were while ordering at midnight but after that I received a text from AT&T late in the morning stating that my order was in the warehouse or whatever and was expected to ship Oct 2 – Oct 13 (2-3 weeks). I checked my order today and it hasn’t been pushed back or anything. I’m hoping they just give you a horrible expectation so you are overwhelmed with receiving the handset in advance.
I got lucky and got one from ATT but looking at the site now its saying i won’t get my phone until sometime between the 23rd- Oct 10th. I really wanted it on the 19th i better not have to wait two weeks.
You don’t want to wait two weeks?
Why, because then Samsung’s next generation phone will be out and then you can see what Apple will release in 2015?
Ha. Apple won’t release a phone that looks like a Band Aid.
At last, was able to pre-order the 6 plus No carrier, they had 15 pre orders left, check http://bit.ly/1qPTFV2
Now just if AT&T could figure out how to ship the phones before November it would be even better. We can pre-order them from AT&T, but we can’t get the new phones until sometime in November or December. And AT&T reps put the issue on Apple, saying it is out of their hands. #ATTSUCKS