Swisscom meets just 10 pct of iPhone 4 demand

Top Swiss telecoms operator Swisscom has only met 10 percent of demand for the Apple iPhone 4 since its troubled global launch, company chief Carsten Schloter said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday.

Asked how many of the new smartphones he had sold, Schloter told Sonntagszeitung: "About ten percent of the volume that we could move."

Apple has sold more than three million of the advanced smartphone since it was launched a month ago in the United States and other top markets.

Sales expanded on July 30 to 17 countries on three continents, including Switzerland, but many customers left empty-handed, frustrating scores of people who even queued up outside shops for hours.

Swisscom was sold out within an hour of shops opening on launch day.

With a ratio of 10 to one in unsatisfied demand, Schloter warned that Apple should not lose touch with its customers and should have allowed them to make advance orders.

"That really leaves customers frustrated. Many of them have known for six weeks that they wanted a new iPhone," Swisscom's chief executive said.

(c) 2010 AFP