O2’s iPhone 4 Stock Limited To Existing Customers

O2 has admitted that it only has enough stock of the iPhone 4 to give it to existing customers, at the launch of the device this week.

The phone will be available for people with O2 broadband contracts who want to move their mobile to O2, as well as to those who already have an O2 mobile, the company has said. People who want to move to O2 can do it if they  get an iPhone 4 from Apple and add an O2 SIM, of course.

Demand for the phone has been very high – in the US, 600,000 pre-orders crashed the web sites of both Apple and exclusive operator AT&T. In the UK, Apple’s pre-order stock sold from its site within 24 hours.

However, O2’s iPhone tariffs caused widespread confusion when they were announced last week, and some of the company’s customers are planning a protest at the company’s decision to stop offering unlimited mobile data, because high usage by some people has been overloading the network.

Some potential customers may be waiting to see if 3 or T-Mobile undercuts O2, which had an exclusive distribution deal for the iPhone in the UK until late in 2009.

Form an iPhone 4 queue…

“Not everybody who wants one will be able to get one straight away,” said an O2 release on Friday. “We want to make sure that our existing customers get priority so until at least the end of July, only existing O2 customers will be able to get an iPhone 4 from us.”

O2 had previous versions of the iPhone exclusively in the UK until late 2009, when T-Mobile, Vodafone and Orange also took the device on, The other major operator, 3, promised it would have the iPhone this year,  and has joined the party with the iPhone 4.

The iPhone 4 was leaked in photos early in 2010, when prototypes fell into the hands of gadget websites. The final device is identical to the prototypes: it is smaller and thinner tan previous iPhones, and has a larger battery capable of 7 hours of talk time.

The phone also has a front-facing camera for video conferencing and a built-in three-axis gyroscope. Its iOS4 operating system, also has abilities such as multitasking.

Hopes were raised last year that iPhone prices would be drastically reduced, but this idea has faded given the obvious appetite for the iPhone 4.

Sales of iPhones are far ahead of sales of the iPad, although Apple sold a million iPad tablets in thirty days after launching, which began shipping in the UK at the end of May.