Apple says sorry for selling out a record 1.7 million iPhone 4 devices

Steve Jobs apologized for selling a record 1.7 million iPhone 4 devices in three days this morning, despite reception issues and problems with “holding” the phone properly.

Analysts had told Bloomberg that the company would sell 2 million phones by the end of the company’s fiscal quarter on Saturday and 1 million phones on the launch day alone.

“This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.”

The sales, a record for Apple, came despite a reception problem many new buyers reported. The phone loses its signal if users cover the bottom left-hand corner of the device, where there’s a gap between the pieces that form the phone’s antenna.