Best Buy doesn’t seem to have many secrets left for its June 24 iPhone 4 launch event now that it’s game plan and product inventories have been leaked. The big box retailer plans to reinstate its iPhone 4 pre-order program on the 24th, and stores will have limited iPhone inventories that may even include the white model.
The documents, obtained by iClarified, show that customers pre-ordering iPhone 4 units on the 24th will pay a US$50 deposit, just like early pre-order customers. New pre-order customers will go to the bottom of the company’s first-come-first-served list.
Best Buy will be opening early on the 24th to handle pre-order customers, but won’t have access to AT&T’s activation servers before 7AM eastern time.
The document also states “If a customer would like to reserve an iPhone 4, stores may ring a pre-sale transaction before store hours so the customer does not need to wait in line… pre-sales may only be tendered until 11 a.m. local time.”
Best Buy locations will have limited iPhone 4 inventory on launch day. Stores are showing as few as 10 and as many as 70 iPhone 4 units per store, although the leaked documents aren’t indicating yet any are on the way for delivery. The inventory lists show a mix of black and white models, too.
Apple and its partners began accepting iPhone 4 pre-orders on June 15. Demand for the new combination iPod and smartphone has been so high that Apple has pushed new pre-order deliveries out to July 14, and Best Buy and AT&T killed their pre-order programs after a day.
The iPhone 4 is set to go on sale on June 24. It includes a higher resolution display compared to the iPhone 3GS, a 5 megapixel camera that supports 720p video capture, a built-in LED flash, a front-facing camera for video calls, glass front and back, and a new form factor that’s 24 percent thinner than the previous model. It is priced at $199 for the 16GB model, and $299 for the 32GB version.