For those of you dying to get an iPhone during the first week, it should be important to know how many each store will be getting. Obviously, neither AT&T nor Apple is going to release this information beforehand.

With a little research and mathematics, the staff at TAP have calculated a number from which we can start making reasonable estimates. Observe:

AT&T has “approximately 2,000 nationwide company-owned wireless retail outlets” as stated here.

Add to that number the 160 nationwide Apple stores (as of April 2007) according to Wikipedia.

This makes the total possible number of stores that could receive an iPhone during the first week 2,160.

Merrill Lynch estimates there will be only 200,000 – 300,000 iPhones available per month during the initial launch. If Apple’s history of product releases remains consistent, the initial batch of products will not all be available during the first week, rather, new shipments roll in on a weekly basis. Therefore, the first week of the iPhone launch we can expect to see around 50,000 – 75,000 units available nationwide.

Divide the number of iPhones in the first week by the number of stores possibly getting them, and we see that each store would receive somewhere around 22 – 34 iPhones. The average of the high and low estimates: 28.

An alarming amount of guesswork goes into that number. We have assumed that every Apple and AT&T store will be getting iPhones, and that they will be getting an even share. This is not likely to be the case. Further, we assume that the estimates of availability for the first month are correct, and that the supply will be evenly divided over the first four weeks after the release.

Should you bet the farm on this number? Clearly not. Does it serve as a reasonable assumption? We think so.