The iPhone is definitely popular. So popular, that there iPhone shortages, deadly leaps from buildings and black market prices for a black empty iPhone box as high as $650.
In the Apple earnings conference call, there were clues and warnings of an iPhone shortage. COO Tim Cook said demand for iPhones "has been staggering n almost every country we've shipped in."
While CFO Peter Oppenheimer said, supplies are "currently constrained in virtually every country we're shipping in . . . and we're working very hard
to fulfill that demand."
Cook said that they have increased production that will keep rollouts to 20 more countries on schedule.
A check of the Apple iPhone retail store iPhone stock-locator in California does show some some iPhone models out of stock in some stores as of today.
AT&T activated 2.4 million iPhones in Q2. Apple's announcement that 5.2 million iPhones were sold stunned Analysts who didn't expect such great sales. The pressure must be great for iPhone factories, so great in fact, that an employee killed himself by jumping off a building, after he lost an iPhone prototype.
The demand for iPhones has gotten so crazy, that an empty unlocked iPhone box sold on eBay for $650. The listing was titled "iPhone 3G Black 16 GB Box and Instructions". The buyer had to pay an additional $3.99 for shipping from Maryland.
Currently, the price to buy a new iPhone 3G S on eBay is around $610 with free shipping.