iPhone 4 the 'most successful product launch in Apple’s history'

(AFP PHOTO MIGUEL MEDINA)

Following in the footsteps of the very successful iPad launch, Apple has yet again broken all its previous records to sell over 1.7 million iPhone 4s in just three days.

"This is the most successful product launch in Apple's history," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.

"Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply."

The high-tech device went on sale in the US, parts of Europe and Japan on June 24, receiving outstanding reviews from technology journalists and consumers alike.

At the same time, the handset has been plagued with reception issues, thought to be caused from holding the stainless steel band that edges the phone (and doubles as the antenna) in a particular way.

The UK's DailyMail posted an article (which has since been deleted) on June 27 reporting that Steve Jobs had tweeted, "We may have to recall the new iPhone." However, the Twitter account quoted in the article was a spoof and did not belong to Steve Jobs. No recall has been planned.

The sales figures show that despite the (few) reported incidents of antenna interference, the iPhone 4 is proving to be a wildly popular smartphone with consumers.

According to a recent study by market researcher Canalys, there were around 7.7 million Android handsets sold worldwide in 2009. During the Motorola Droid X announcement on June 23, Google's VP Andy Rubin, announced that there were 160,000 Android phones activated every day.

The iPhone 4 will be released in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland at the end of July.