If you’re an existing Verizon customer looking to pick up the iPhone and you didn’t take advantage of the early opportunity to pre-order yesterday, the first batch is all gone. Just after 8:00 last night, Verizon “ceased online orders of iPhone 4 to existing customers and ended the most successful first day sales in the history of the company,” according to Verizon’s press release.
The “kicker” as one might say, is actually divided into three separate but powerful kicks encompassing these record first-day sales numbers.
1. It only took two hours to break the previous record.
2. The phone could only be purchased by existing Verizon customers.
3. Sales began at 3AM (Eastern time).
The glaring omission, of course, is that no actual numbers were divulged. We’d have to know how many phones were sold on Verizon’s previous record launch day to even being to discern how many iPhones sold in the first two hours. One analyst guesses the number may be less than 100,000 but it’ll be a long time (if ever) before the true number of handsets sold is revealed.
If you missed your chance or you’re not a Verizon customer already, sales to the general public will begin next Thursday, February 10th.
Verizon’s retail stores will open at 7AM and the phone will be available online at the Verizon and Apple websites. Best Buy will also be selling the phone, along with “select Wal-Mart stores.”
More on TIME.com:
Verizon Asks Employees Not to Buy iPhones Before Customers