AT&T Activates Only 150,000 iPhones During First Two Days – What Are People Waiting For?

AT&T reported in its Q2 2007 results that it had sold 146,000 in the two days it was on sale in June (released at 6pm on the 29th. – so 30 total hours)

I am not sure if this is bad news or good news. The Street (AAPL down $4 on news) seems to think it is a bad sign as some analyst were pointing at first weekend sales to be anywhere from 400,000-700,000 units. It just goes to show you how much these guys really know – nada.   I wonder what their metrics were?  

More than likely however, this is just clearing out the irrational exuberance.  150,000 untested iPhones is a lot in two  days and who knows how many more were signed up for AT&T in the following days.  There are plenty of people waiting in the wings for a iPhone.  What are the waiting for?  

A few things:

1. Not everyone lives near an Apple Store or AT&T Outlet and some people didn’t want to be part of the herd if they did.  People who bought theirs online or over the phone had to wait for theirs to be sent and aren’t reflected in the AT&T tally. 
2. Waiting for current contract to end.  With contract buyouts costing as much as $200, it makes no sense not to wait a few extra months until the current contract to run out to change carriers to AT&T.
3. Some people are waiting for the initial rush to end so they don’t have to stand in lines or their store is out of stock.  That is largely over now but the initial AT&T numbers don’t reflect that.
4. Waiting for the kinks to get ironed out.  I hate to say it but as the owner of the original MacBook Pro, I can certainly attest: Apple’s first generation products are not as reliable as follow up versions.  This isn’t only Apple of course.  Some people are waiting for the second rev.
5. Waiting for the reviews to come in.  This is also largely over and the reviews are almost universally positive but not reflected in the first two day’s numbers.
6. Waiting for 3G.  Yeah, this is like 90% of the people I know that are waiting.  We’ll see – probably November for Christmas.  EDGE just doesn’t do it and is the single biggest limiting hardware feature – that is can’t be updated by software.
7. Christmas, Birthday, IT at work.  Sometimes you have to wait a bit for milestones to arrive.
8. Waiting for cost to come down.  Rumors of iPhone Nano or other low cost options are abound and $600 for a phone just doesn’t compute for some people.
9. Better software.  Some people can’t live without the IM functionality that iPhone lacks.  Others are waiting for better email functionality or perhaps some other killer app to emerge (Skype?).
10. Waiting to save up enough money.  There are more than a few people who didn’t know how absurdly cool this phone is.  They do now but haven’t budgeted the money that it will cost to afford this phone.  Add to that the cost of getting out of their current contract and it isn’t cheap.
11. If you are an Apple Employee (One of 25,000) you don’t get yours until the consumer run is over.
12. AT&T had significant activation problems during the first week.  Undoubtedly a great deal of iPhones went unactivated during day 1 and 2.  EDIT: We have a lot of commenters who mention that their phones that they bought were not activated until Sunday.  After the fiscal quarter ended.  Also, did AT&T tally the numbers activated on the weekend or were they all tallied on Monday?
13. Waiting for them to come to Europe.  That’s me.  Hurry up November!

So what are you waiting for?