iPhone 4 sales top 1.7m in three days

Apple has announced that over 1.7 million iPhone 4s were sold in the device's first three days of availability.

Demand for the iPhone 4 - which features a high resolution screen, improved battery life and a video calling system - has been feverish ever since Apple chief executive Steve Jobs first unveiled the product on June 7.

Record pre-orders resulted in Apple quickly selling out of its first batch of the device, with some online ordering systems suffering meltdown.

After officially going on sale in five key territories on June 24, Apple sold over 1.7m iPhone 4s in the three days to June 26

The performance comfortably beat analyst predictions of around 1m sales and made the iPhone 4 launch Apple's most successful ever.

"This is the most successful product launch in Apple's history," said Jobs.

"Even so, we apologise to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply."

Despite the strong sales, the iPhone 4 has faced criticism about reception problems, particularly in regards to how some users are holding the device.

Numerous buyers have reported that the 3G signal fades or disappears entirely when they hold the phone in a natural way.

In response, Apple said in a statement: "Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas.

"This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your Phone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases."

Apple is also believed to be working on a software update for the iPhone 4 which will hopefully provide a more permanent solution to the reception issues.