CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple said it sold more than 1.7 million new iPhones in the gadget’s first three days on the market, shattering a record for sales of the popular phone.
Sales of the iPhone 4 beat last year’s iPhone 3GS, which sold 1 million in the comparable period.
“This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history,” chief executive Steve Jobs said in a statement. “Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.”
Many stores ran out of the phone on the first day it went on sale Thursday, as hundreds of thousands across the country waited in long lines.
The record sales came despite controversy over the device, which boasts the newest update to Apple’s operating system — iOS 4 — and the iPhone 4-to-iPhone 4 video chatting feature, FaceTime.
Apple stopped taking advance orders the week before the launch, saying it was worried about making the phones fast enough to meet the demand. More than 600,000 iPhone 4s were sold on the first day Apple began taking orders.
Then, after the launch, customers complained that the phone loses signal when it is held in a certain way. Apple explained that holding the phone in a certain position can interfere with the antenna and recommended that customers not hold it that way.
And those waiting to get their hands on the white version of the new iPhone will have to wait until the end of July or settle for a black one.
Apple said in a statement that a white iPhone 4 proved to be “more challenging to manufacture than expected.” Despite Apple’s setbacks, the iPhone 4’s early sales figures slightly exceeded Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster’s initial prediction of 1.5 million.
