June 21st, 2007
New: more details surface about AT&T Wireless on iPhone day
In this morning’s USA Today, Leslie Cauley summarizes some iPhone supply chain issues being dealt with by AT&T Mobility as it gears up for the June 29 launch:
Some 2,000 employees have been added to AT&T Mobility’ retail roster: about half for crowd control and the remainder for customer service.
AT&T Wireless has been talking to law enforcement in some markets about crowd control issues. I believe these conversations are taking place in large cities where AT&T Wireless stores are on public streets as opposed to mall-only.
If (when) an individual store’s inventory runs out, AT&T Mobility store employees will be empowered to take orders from customers. There will then be a three to five day delivery commitment, weather permitting.
There will be a limit on the number of iPhones sold to individual customers on opening day. Obviously this is to prevent hoarding, and resale via unauthorized channels. The limit has not been specified, but I believe it will be two- less likely, three.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
