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SAN FRANCISCO - AT&T Inc sold almost all its initial stock of Apple Inc's iPhone within hours of the device going on sale, an AT&T spokesman said overnight.
An Apple spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the number of iPhones sold at its 162 US outlets.
The combination cell phone, media player and Web browser went on sale at AT&T and Apple stores on Friday at 6pm in each US time zone in the most anticipated gadget launch of the year.
"Virtually all of our stores sold out of the iPhone last night," AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said, declining to specify how many units had been sold.
AT&T, which runs about 1800 stores in the United States, was still taking orders for iPhones and giving customers the option of picking the handset up in a store later or having it shipped to them directly, Siegel said.
Asked about problems that some iPhone buyers were having with activating their phones, Siegel said the "vast majority" of customers were able to begin using their phones within minutes.
"There are some whose activation process is being delayed and that's something that can happen in a launch like this and we're resolving those on a case-by-case basis," Siegel said.
- REUTERS
