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A telecom-industry source said of those sold, about 8,000 were picked up by customers who pre-registered between last month and last Thursday, while the rest were purchased by walk-ins to the debut event at Siam Paragon.

True Move allowed those pre-registering for the first lot of handsets to pick them up from last Friday to Sunday at Siam Paragon. Others were allowed to register on the spot to buy the phones.

The source said True Move had targeted a combined 20,000 iPhones to be sold via pre-registration and to walk-ins at the three-day launch at Siam Paragon. When contacted by the press to confirm whether that was true, CEO Supachai Chearavanont declined to confirm the target number.

True Move had estimated it could distribute 1,000 iPhones an hour to buyers during the three days. However, it reportedly took longer, because True Move's computer-based distribution-management system at the event failed to match some of the phones' code numbers to those held by pre-registered customers. Some customers had to wait for hours for their phone.

True Move's customer database also failed immediately to activate SIM cards for some customers purchasing both an iPhone and a new SIM card. Some had to wait three days for their SIM card to be activated.

There have been reports that True Move guaranteed to Apple sales of 100,000 iPhones a year for three years, but industry observers are doubtful whether that is achievable amid the bleak spending mood of consumers.

But a True Move source expressed confidence the company could meet the target.

"Our iPhone 3G mobile phones don't target only individual tech geeks, but rather entire enterprises," the source said.