AT&amp;T Walk-Ins for iPhone 4 Begin Next Week

A number of customers who pre-ordered Apple’s iPhone 4 have reported receiving the handset ? two days before its official release date. Also, those who didn’t pre-order the device will be able to pick one up at an AT&T store on a first-come, first-serve basis as soon as next Tuesday.

An AT&T spokesman said iPhone 4 will begin arriving this week for customers who preordered. Those who preordered an iPhone 4 for home delivery will receive an e-mail when their order is shipped. The company will also begin phoning customers this week who placed reservations to notify them when their iPhone 4 is available for in-store pickups. Last, customers who did not preorder the device will be able to line up for an iPhone 4 at an AT&T store next Tuesday.

“iPhone 4 pre-order sales on June 15 were 10 times higher than the first day of pre-ordering for the iPhone 3GS last year,” AT&T said in a statement Tuesday. “Demand is simply unprecedented.� We?re thrilled to see the excitement around iPhone 4 and are committed to helping as many customers as quickly as we can. As we said last week, we?re committed to fulfilling preorders first ? and are on track to do so.”

AT&T’s announcement followed individual reports from pre-order customers who claimed their iPhone 4 had already arrived in the mail.

The release of the iPhone 4 has been bumpy, to say the least. When Apple and AT&T opened preorders for the iPhone 4 last week, their servers were overwhelmed by the gigantic number of preorders, and in some instances AT&T’s website even sprung a security leak. Later, Apple and AT&T said the problems were due to an unprecedented number of preorders ? 600,000 on day one.

UPDATED: The first version of this story incorrectly stated that AT&T would start delivering iPhones this week.

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