Apple has notched up 1.7m sales of its latest iPhone in its first three days on the market, setting a new launch-weekend record for the mobile phone industry in spite of supply problems and crashes in online ordering systems.
The sales topped the most optimistic projections for the iPhone 4 by analysts, who had published reports predicting sales of as many as 1.5m units. A year ago, Apple sold 1m units of the iPhone 3GS in a similar three-day launch blitz.
Existing Apple customers formed the majority of those who queued in line for hours at many stores, showing that the company is strengthening its recurring revenue as people upgrade from previous iPhones.