Cupertino, Calif. - Apple has announced that 270,000 iPhones were sold during the device's first two days on sale, a number that both the company and partner AT&T tried to reconcile with the fact that AT&T reported only 146,000 iPhones were activated during the same period. AT&T admits that it experienced some problems with the online activation process, but that this was limited to "a small percentage" of customers. CNET News.com sat in on Apple's earnings conference call, during which representatives from both companies were unable to convincingly provide a single reason. Along with the activation problems, the companies cited procrastination in activation by consumers, the fact that some hoped to buy one and later re-sell it online, and a shipment of the devices that was in transit on Saturday to AT&T stores for eventual sale beginning Sunday -- when the missing 124,000 units would not have reflected in AT&T's activation figures. Apple's iPhone sales total was more in line with analysts' estimates than AT&T's activation tally, though, and along with strong Mac and iPod sales helped boost the company's fiscal third quarter earnings by 73% from a year ago. The company said it shipped 9.8 million iPods during the quarter, compared with 8.1 million in the same period last year. Apple also said it expects to ship its one millionth iPhone by the end of September. 

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http://tinyurl.com/yo4bn7 (CNET)