PROVIDENCE – Rhode Islanders displayed a voracious appetite for the new iPhone 3G earlier this month, snapping up Apple Inc.’s entire local supply of the much-hyped mobile device during its first weekend on sale.
The Apple Store in Providence Place mall was one 95 outlets nationwide that ran out of iPhones by Sunday night, two days after the iPhone was released, according to an online inventory posted on Apple’s Web site. The company sold 1-million iPhones worldwide over the three-day span.
So many customers were still showing up at the store on Saturday afternoon that would-be iPhone buyers had to wait in line outside the store before purchasing the device, which is priced between $199 and $299 and carries cellular service from AT&T.
“This is definitely a faster start than we anticipated,” Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster told Bloomberg News. •
