Apple said it sold more than 1.7 million units of the iPhone 4 over the first weekend it was available for purchase.
Steven P. Jobs, chief executive of the company, said that the iPhone 4, which first became available on Thursday, had topped the sales figures of previous iPhone models.
The iPhone 3G, which went on sale in 2008, and the 3GS, which became available in 2009, both sold close to a million units in the same period, Apple said.
“This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history,” Mr. Jobs said in a statement on Monday.
The release of the new phone was not without some hiccups. Despite online glitches that caused processing errors during the presale period, more than 600,000 people placed preorders for the phone, causing both Apple and AT&T to delay the shipment of any new orders placed online.
“We apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply,” Mr. Jobs said.
In addition, many new owners have complained of problems with the new smartphone, including reception issues and odd screen discolorations.
Mr. Jobs did not mention the reception difficulties on Monday, although he did acknowledge the issue in an e-mail message to a frustrated iPhone 4 owner who noticed that his cellular signal was sharply degraded when he held the phone. Although Mr. Jobs advised iPhone 4 owners to avoid gripping the metal antennas in the frame of the phone in a certain way, another solution may be en route.
The blog AppleInsider, citing Apple’s tech support forums, reported on Friday that the company was planning to release a software update to fix the signal problems.
Investors seem happy with the performance of the iPhone 4. Apple’s stock was up $1.56, or 0.6 percent, at $268.26 in afternoon trading on Monday.