AT&T suspends iPhone 4 pre-orders. Will they start again?

June 16, 2010 - By Justin E. Gehrke

Well, you probably (ok, definitely) heard the news that AT&T has suspended pre-orders of the Apple iPhone 4. It seems that, despite the underwhelming performance of their webservers and internal systems, more than 600,000 estimated technophiles were able to successfully pre-order the device yesterday.

Geek Shui Living related its sad tale of unsuccessful pre-ordering yesterday. If it is any solace to us, we know we’re not alone in our virtual pain. Unfortunately, any hope that we had of being able to pre-order the iPhone 4, prior to its June 24, 2010 release, may have been squashed, with the reported (but unconfirmed) release of an email by AT&T to its employees.

Well, not anymore...

In it, the company has reportedly tells employees that, yes, pre-ordering has been suspended. It appears the move was made to ensure that enough inventory is on-hand to actually fulfill the pre-orders. If this is the case, AT&T is doing the right thing. Imagine expecting your iPhone 4 to arrive, only to receive word that it has been delayed by days…or weeks. This obviously would only add to the frustration expressed by so many would-be owners, yesterday.

Additionally, AT&T has reportedly told employees that, based on the higher than normal demand, they will not be receiving employee discounts on the device. This is likely to upset many employees, since employee discounts are a customary benefit to which many have become accustomed.

It also seems that pre-ordering may resume if additional inventory is scheduled to be received. For the front-line customer service representatives, this means that the already high call volume will remain even higher, since thousands will call daily, just to make sure pre-ordering resumed in an unannounced change.

Ultimately, we won’t gloat about the employee’s losing their discounts. It wouldn’t be right. Unfortunately, they’re in the same boat as the rest of us…iPhone 4 pre-orderless and frustrated. Just in case, though, maybe we’ll call AT&T tomorrow and ask if pre-ordering resumed. They’ll understand, right?

If you read this whole post and have no idea what all of the fuss is about, you can see the complete list of iOS 4-powered iPhone 4 features and specs here.