iFizzle?

Exactly what happened in Apple and AT&T stores around the country on June 29 and June 30?

Wall Street analysts had predicted that at least 200,000, and possibly as many as 700,000 of the gadgets were bought during its debut weekend. Before the weekend arrived, the so-called "whisper number" on Wall Street called for sales of 1 million iPhones at its launch.

Today AT&T, which is the exclusive service provider for the Apple device, shed some light on what actually happened during those final two days of the second quarter. From its earnings release: "The June 29 launch allowed for less than two days of sales and activations before the end of the quarter. In that time, AT&T activated 146,000 iPhone subscribers, more than 40 percent of them new subscribers."

Did you catch that? A measly 146,000. It's doubtful that anyone eager enough to buy the phone during the first 36 hours it was on sale would wait even a moment to activate it.

We know AT&T had problems handling the activation for some phones, but it claimed at the time it only affected 2 percent of iPhone owners during opening weekend.

So that would mean that Apple might have sold around 150,000 iPhones.

But it's also possible that a portion of the initial iPhone buyers turned around and sold them without activating the service, or planned to give them as gifts. EBay reported 8,000 iPhones for sale on its site by Saturday afternoon.

So let's be extra generous and say that, including the sales to flippers, Apple sold 175,000 iPhones.

We're still a far cry from the half-million estimates, and not even in the same galaxy as the whisper number. Apple shareholders are clearly disappointed. Its stock is down nearly 3 percent today.

We'll get some answers to these questions tomorrow, when Apple's earnings announcement will disclose how many phones it sold during the last day-and-a-half of its quarter.

If the number is significantly higher than 175,000, then AT&T and Apple should justify the discrepancy. If it's not, then Wall Street has some explaining to do.

by Megan Barnett