How does pre-ordering with Apple work?

What has happened in the past is the pre-order date is when you can place an order for the phone. You will not receive it until at least the 24th (available date). If you want to be one of the first on your block to get one, I'd recommend ordering as early as possible. You will be told the prospective "receive by" date when you order. Historically, those that order early, receive them on the available date. Of course you can also camp out at your local Apple Store (as has become an Apple tradition).

It is possible there might be a lag during the initial rush, but I doubt it. Apple has figured out how to take orders fairly efficiently 🙂

You are pre-ordering from the manufacturer not from a store.
If you order one they will ship you one.
It is not like a store who have a limited supply, Apple has a limitless supply, they will just make more until you get yours 🙂

If you are in Canada then I have bad news, the iPhone is not being released in Canada until July and will not be available for pre-order on the 15th June.

At the moment there is no pre-order date published for Canada.

As to your original question:

I have not seen issue with the Apple web site when ordering, I ordered an iPad on pre-order day and it worked fine. You can always call them if you prefer on 1-800-MY-APPLE.

There will always be a limit to the amount of devices they have to sell, and of course they could run out on the day. Wr can't really say if that is going to happen, as we don't know how many Apple have made or how many will be ordered. Your guess will be as good as mine.

If you order one on the pre-order date then you will be guaranteed to get an iPhone, but we can't say when you will receive it. Apple will fulfil all pre-orders eventually, so if you order one you will get one.

3ternal5oul wrote:
So if I order an hour or two after Apple starts receiving orders, will there be a possibility that I would not get one because they do not have enough phones at the moment? This is basically my question. Thanks to all again!

That is a possibility.
You will still be able to place your order, but they may give you a delivery date after the 24th June, for instance when they expect the next shipment in the USA. That could be a few days or weeks later.

As I have said quite a few times...

You will be able to place your order on the 15th.
Apple will take the order and will tell you when your iPhone will ship.
There is NO limit to how many they will sell on the 15th June, it is limitless.
The only limit is how many they will have ready to deliver on the 24th.

They will take your order regardless and ship you the iPhone once it is available.

Pre-orders are NOT restricted at all.

If you are not bothered about when you get your iPhone then why the rush to order on the 15th?
Why not just order on the 16th, 17th..... any date? You will still get an iPhone 4.

but they may give you a delivery date after the 24th June, for instance when they
expect the next shipment in the USA.

Except like all Apple products, the orders are shipped individually direct from the factory to you (China is only hours away). But it doesn't really matter. I am sure that Apple expects quite a rush initially, and has (will have) quite a stack of them ready to go. But yes, it is possible there could be a delay. Ask anyone that has placed an order for an iPad.

Honestly, I am more concerned about a delay in provisioning them from AT&T than actually receiving the product.

Then you will need to sign up to a USA AT&T contract to buy the phone is that what you want?
Do you not want to be on a Canada contract?