New Apple iPhone 3G

New iPhone offers better web surfing but may be in short supply

Customers looking to buy the new Apple iPhone 3G, which offers improved 3G web surfing, might have to wait until the end of the summer to get their hands on the mobile device.

O2, the UK exclusive network carrier, has advised customers that due to “unprecedented demand”, there will be limited numbers of the iPhone – which combines a touchscreen mobile phone with an iPod music player and full web browser – available on launch day.

"While we are confident that all customers who want iPhone 3G will get one by the end of the summer, initial supply is limited, and will be for some weeks," said an O2 spokesperson. "We are working closely with Apple to get additional iPhone 3Gs. These will be coming in on a weekly basis."

O2 says that there will be "a few dozen" handsets in each O2 store. At one point, the O2 website was handling 13,000 pre-order requests per second from gadget fans on Monday, and its web store had to be taken offline after servers buckled under the weight of traffic.

The Apple iPhone 3G uses high-speed 3G mobile phone network to access the web when not in a wireless internet zone. Getting online with the new device is noticeably faster than on the original iPhone, and the new handset also has built-in GPS software, turning it into a sat nav system.

Apple has sold more than 6 million iPhones worldwide since they first went on sale in the United States last July. It hopes to sell more than 10 million phones by the end of 2008.

Call us on 0800 043 07 64 for a free consultation on mobile surfing