Apple iPhone 3G sold out – three week wait to get one

Apple is sure on a roll. The iPhone 3G is – for all practical purposes – completely sold out.

An AT&T spokesperson says wait time is from 5 to 21 days (that’s three weeks!), even though they are receiving thousands of new shipments “each day.”

Same with Apple retail stores.

After having mine for 10 days and traveling across the state in that time, I can see why. The 3G wireless network is blazingly fast, although AT&T’s 3G coverage is limited in Michigan to just three locations right now — metro Detroit, Flint and Grand Rapids.

While the EDGE network works just abut everywhere, it is very slow at times, no doubt because of the million-plus new iPhones that suddenly joined the system since the new units went on sale July 11.

AT&T says it will be building out and expanding the 3G network to more Michigan cities by the end of the year.

Where it does work, however, the 3G network makes the iPhone about as close to a laptop in convenience and functionality as a mobile phone can be.