NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc.'s US debut of the iPhone drew thousands of shoppers over the weekend, emptying most of AT&T Inc.'s inventory and causing network glitches as the flood of customers began activating the device.Shoppers snapped up as many as 200,000 iPhones the first day after the device went on sale on Friday, according to Global Equities Research. While it was still available at all 164 Apple stores yesterday, AT&T said most of its 1,800 stores no longer had the phone in stock. AT&T is the only mobile-phone service that works with the iPhone — and hence the device will not be available in Bermuda.

"A lot of our stores have sold out," said Mark Siegel, a spokesman for San Antonio-based AT&T, the largest US wireless service. "We're restoring our inventory as fast as we can."

The sales met the expectations of most analysts, giving Apple a foothold in the mobile-phone industry. Chief executive officer Steve Jobs is counting on the device to become Apple's third major source of revenue, alongside the iPod media player and the Macintosh computer. The iPhone combines a web-surfing phone with the iPod.

Some buyers had problems activating the phones because of the large number signing up at the same time, Siegel said. There also were delays switching customers from other carriers.

"Some of my friends are having activation difficulties," Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who got in line at 4 a.m. on June 29 to buy his iPhone, said in an e-mail interview.

He successfully activated his phone and said he's impressed with the software and how the device serves up web pages. "I was going to only use the iPhone as a test phone at first, but I'm ready now to make it my primary number," Wozniak said.

Apple stores sold an estimated 128,000 iPhones on the first day, while AT&T stores sold 72,000, said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with San Francisco-based Global Equities.

The stores stayed open until midnight June 29. Customers could buy one phone at AT&T's stores and two at Apple's outlets.

There's a wait of two to four weeks for customers who order the phone online from Apple, according to the site.

The iPhone comes in two versions: a 4-gigabyte model that sells for $499 and an 8-gigabyte version that costs $599. The phone requires a two-year service contract with AT&T.

Shoppers interviewed at Apple's stores in New York and California favoured the 8-gigabyte model.

"For $100 more, you get double the storage," said engineer Rick Evans, 50, who bought his iPhone on opening night at Apple's store in Stanford, California. "It's a no-brainer."

The iPhone is already selling at a premium on the auction site EBay Inc., despite it still being in stock at Apple's stores. The phone has sold on EBay for an average of $978.75, the company said.