Apple Suspends iPhone 4 Pre-Orders After 600K Sold

Considering the fact that people waited in line...to snag a spot in another line...it shouldn't come as a major shock that Apple and AT&T both sold out of iPhone 4 pre-orders in one day; those lucky buyers will get to stand in a queue next Thursday to pick up the new device. What is more surprising is that it took a whopping 600,000 pre-orders, which AT&T says is 10 times more than it took on the iPhone 3GS's first pre-order day last year. Perhaps that volume is to blame for the mess-of-a-process:

David Pogue, weighing in last night for the New York Times, bemoaned the fact that "AT&T’s Web site has essentially melted down" and poked at the sold-out status (Per usual, does that mean "(a) the numbers were so massive, not even Apple was ready for it, or (b) Apple knows exactly what it is doing, deliberately underestimating quantities so that it could generate “iPhone 4 Sold Out” headlines.") Apple's site now lists a shipping date of July 2 for subsequent pre-orders...if it's even taking any: Visit the site this morning and you'll see "Pre-orders for iPhone temporarily suspended," reports Fortune. Business Insider notes that that doesn't mean Apple won't have "plenty of inventory on hand for in-person buyers." (More iPhone 4 stories.)