Hang the price: iPhone 3G sells out in NZ [UPDATE: analyst questions worldwide "sell out"]
Apple says the 3G iPhone sold one million units worldwide during its first three days (enough to overload Apple's activation servers). Local PR refused to break-out NZ figures, so I conducted a scientific survey of two stores on Auckland's Queen Street. A sales rep at Vodafone's 171 Queen Street store - scene of the world-first 3G iPhone sale - said his shop had sold out.
This took me back a bit, as I'd been expecting to uncover anecdotal evidence that the over-priced 1GB plan (the second most expensive in the 21 countries the 3G iPhone was released) had left local punters cold.
But at 171 Queen Street, the rep claimed that all of its allocated 170 3G iPhones had been sold - which sounds pretty good, to me, for one store over three days - and that "it's sold out everywhere". A bunch of guys on their lunch break were hunched enthusiastically around a remaining display iPhone, proving negative press about the 3G model's pricing hasn't dented the device's rock star appeal.
The DS Wireless store up the hill also reported a sellout, though the guy behind the counter said "we hardly got any". Reinforcement iPhones were arriving in two weeks, he'd been told.
Vodafone's Paul Brislen says the last iPhones in the first shipment of "several thousand" did sell out last night (Wednesday night) but that restocking has already started.
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Comments
Has anybody noticed that the $250 per month 1Gig Vodafone deal is no longer available on the Vodafone NZ website? Interesting...
[Vodafone's Paul Brislen says: "The $250 plan is so popular we've extended it to all handsets - it's no longer an iPhone-only plan, you can get it with any device." CK]
Posted by: Guy | July 17, 2008 2:03 PM
It sold out from the Queen St store around 4am on launch night. Sort of disturbing how many people went. The online store has been restocking by recalling units from the smaller retail stores where they weren't selling (seeing as they sold better online, and if they can sell them all they can announce they've "sold out" rather than have some left in some store in the middle of nowhere).
Posted by: Fred | July 16, 2008 10:16 PM
It seemed to sell quick from the vodafone site too, here's a copy of their stock page
iPhone 3G Online Stock
10:31am 16 July: More stock expected today (All Models)
03:52pm 15 July: All iPhone 3G models SOLD OUT
02:14am 11 July: 16GB Black model SOLD OUT
12.01am, 11 July: All iPhone models available
Posted by: Chris | July 16, 2008 7:57 PM
I was in Christchurch over the weekend, and I went to 5 shops in chirtchurch in sunday afternoon, 1 of them sold out all iphone, the other 4 still have both 8gb and 16gb in stock and 3 out of 4 still have both white and black in stock.
My friend told me one of the shop in upper hutt wellington. They sold out all iphone 3g, because they only have 16 units in total
Posted by: Jeremy | July 16, 2008 7:24 PM