iPhone 4 goes on sale in Ireland

Phone stores opened early this morning to begin selling the eagerly awaited iPhone 4.

With stock expected to be limited, fans of the brand keen to buy the latest Apple handset queued in the rain early today to ensure they got their hands on one.

However, unlike previous iPhone launches, customers have a greater choice of networks, with O2, Vodafone and Three Ireland all offering the handset.

They can also buy the phone sim-free from Apple directly and choose their own network.

Three Ireland was first off the mark, opening its stores in Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, Cork, Galway and Killarney from a minute past midnight, ahead of rivals O2 and Vodafone.

Other Three stores opened at 8am, and the handset was also available online.

Rival network O2 opened the doors of some stores in Dublin, Drogheda, Tralee, Galway, Cork and Limerick at 8am. However the operator said it was restricting its iPhone 4 sales to existing customers for the initial launch period as stocks were expected to be limited.

It was also available from 8am from the O2 web store.

“As soon as stock availability improves, we will be in a position to sell the device to anyone that wants one – both new and existing customers,” a spokesman for the network said.

Like the other networks, O2 will be selling the current generation 8GB iPhone 3GS to new and existing customers.

Vodafone stores will open as normal, but the online store began selling the handset at 7.30am.

The iPhone 4 was unveiled to great hype on June 7th. It went on sale in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan on June 24th, notching up pre-orders of more than 600,000 in a single day.

By June 28th, more than 1.7 million handsets had been sold.

However, the iPhone 4 has suffered a number of setbacks since its launch, with complaints from some users that the reception on the phones was affected by holding it in a certain way.

Despite telling customers that there was no problem with the phone’s antenna, Apple was forced to offer users free rubberised cases to cover the area on the phone that caused problems.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said the company knew its iPhone 4 would lose signal when held a certain way, but did not think it would be a big issue.

At a press conference earlier this month, he demonstrated similar issues with other smartphones, including Blackberry and HTC handsets.

Customers who already bought a bumper case were promised a refund, while those who are still not happy with the phone can return the handset for a full refund.

Apple has also run into difficulty with the white iPhone 4 model. After announcing an initial delay last month, Apple was last week forced to admit it would take a little longer than previously anticipated.

“White models of Apple’s new iPhone 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected and, as a result, they will not be available until later this year,” the company said in a statement.