iPhone 4 ordering glitches caused by huge demand, Apple and AT&T say

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Shedding some light on the widespread glitches encountered by prospective iPhone 4 buyers on Tuesday, AT&T and Apple Inc. said Wednesday that pre-orders were far higher than they had anticipated and that the companies had pre-sold more than 600,000 units -- a number 10 times that of the phone’s predecessor.

Because of the huge demand, AT&T and Apple have suspended pre-ordering until further notice. The official iPhone 4 sale date is June 24.

Apple apologized for what it called ‘many order and approval system malfunctions’ and noted that ‘many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration.’

Though AT&T did not offer an explanation for its system glitches, it did say there were 13 million visits to its website yesterday by users interested in the phone.

‘That number is about 3-times higher than the previous record for eligibility upgrade checks in one day,’ the company said in a statement.

-- David Sarno