Buying more, more, more of iPhone 4

AN Apple a day is good for phone sales as well as your health as stores around the country reported a heavy demand for the company’s iPhone 4 which went on sale yesterday.

Ireland was one of 17 countries including Australia, Canada and Spain in which the new Apple handset became available yesterday following its global launch last June.

However, Apple insists on virtual secrecy governing its sales figures so no details are available on the number of units of the iPhone 4 sold in the Republic.

Although sales of earlier versions of the iPhone were limited to customers of one mobile phone operator, the new updated model is on sale from Vodafone, O2 and 3 Ireland, while SIM-free models can also be bought directly from Apple.

3 Ireland was the first operator to make the eagerly awaited new version of Apple’s iPhone available when it opened its stores in Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, Cork, Galway and Killarney from midnight.

Hundreds of customers queued outside the Grafton Street outlet in Dublin in advance of the late opening to be the first to lay their hands on the iconic handset given prior warnings stocks of the product would be limited.

A 3 spokesperson said hundreds of the new iPhones were sold before dawn with remaining supplies running out fast.

O2, which confined sales of the iPhone 4 to existing customers due to limited supplies of the product, said its online store had sold out within an hour of going on sale at 8am yesterday.

O2 also reported huge demand for the product in its retail outlets across the country and said it hoped further supplies of the iPhone would be available next week in stores which had sold out of the handsets.

Vodafone also sold all of its stock of the new phone in both its online store and high street shops.

A Vodafone spokesperson said it expected its outlets would be restocked with the new iPhone at some stage next week.

Although the iPhone 4 has recorded massive global sales since it was first launched two months ago with over 1.7 million units being sold in June alone, it has also attracted some negative comment, especially in relation to poor reception.

Many users complained that the phone had a very bad signal when the handset was held in a particular way.

The problem has been blamed on the bezel – a stainless steel band which is the phone’s antenna that runs around the handset’s edge.

Apple has been forced to offer free rubber cases to customers to cover the area which causes the problem. The company’s chief executive, Steve Jobs had to admit Apple were aware of the issue but he insisted the problem also affected other smartphones like Blackberry and HTC handsets. Despite the generally positive reception to the latest version of the iPhone, the Consumers Association of Ireland criticised how Irish users continue to pay higher prices than their British counterparts for both the handset and basic monthly tariffs.

“It’s a sad reality Irish customers do not get the deal enjoyed by our near neighbours despite the fact that they are the second highest users of mobile phones on the planet,” said CAI chief executive Dermott Jewell.

Many of the people who bought the iPhone yesterday are also likely to have been Apple fans who purchased the company’s new iPad just last week when it too was launched on the Irish market.

Sales of the hand-held computer which is bigger than a palmtop but smaller than a netbook have remained brisk over the past week, according to retailers.

Joe Manley, manager of the Compu B store in Cork, said they were continuing to sell out the product as fast as fresh supplies were coming in.