“Apple said on Friday that it is sold out of some iPhone 5s models, amid what it described as “incredible” demand,” Ina Fried reports for AllThingsD.
“‘Demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and we are currently sold out or have limited supply of certain iPhone 5s models in some stores,’ an Apple representative told AllThingsD,” Fried reports. “Availability for the gold iPhone 5s is now listed as ‘October,’ with seven-to-10-day wait times quoted for the silver and gray models.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Judge Bork” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
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Analyst: Lines for Apple’s new iPhones are massive, likely the longest they’ve ever been – September 20, 2013
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See this exactly what’s wrong with Apple.
Inventory problems. Can’t predict and manage production and inventory levels properly.
Doomed.
/s?
@Grigori Yes. But did I need to say it?
Evidently. You may be the only one who got it.
Yes, you did need to say it. Sadly, there posters that act like Samsung paid trolls so the /s lets us all in on the joke.
Sad world.
PS, The report must be wrong. All the experts said that since Apple did not post sales from pre day 1 then sales must be horrible. /s
And if you cannot trust idiot paid anal…..yst, who can you trust…. er laugh at, either way. LOL
Sad world indeed.
I’ll be making an effort to bring back the ” air quote ” in meetings.
Oops.
/s
If you had a nickel for every phone Apple sold today you could not only get a real classic but you could even afford brain surgery.
Brain is fine. But when I need it, my single-malt-earned liver transplant will be graciously funded by AAPL purchased way back on the word “boom”:
Don’t be a cock
Crocks, ??? aren’t those colorful plastic shoes that look just horrible??? LOL
Yes, what they clearly need is an expert who knows how to run a large organization and manage production line. Steve Jobs ran across just such an expert, by the name of Tim Cook…. Anyone heard of him lately…whatever happened to him…
fool – its planned this way to express such a demand
No. I don’t think so.
Think about this.
Apple is building (at an OEM supplier or two) the production capacity to churn out these phones throughout the year(s).
They crank it up to 11 prior to launch, but they are still early in the the product’s life and yields will not be at good as later in the product life cycle. So they’re stockpiling them prior to launch to have inventory on-hand. How long do you do this for? At some point you just have to start selling.
So, it’s easy to get caught short because you can’t stockpile forever, and you can’t over-build your production capacity just for launch weekend. But getting caught short is not cheap, and it’s not desirable. The good PR of having product shortages simply can’t make up for the lost of real sales to real people.
I just happened to wake up in the middle of the night and ordered a 64GB “Space Gray” 5S on AT&T through the Apple Store at 3:00 A.M. CDT. Even at that time of the morning it was showing 7-10 days (delivery October 8 – 11).
In many cases, those huge lines are running past vacant Microsoft stores.
Maybe Apple should sub-let the Microsoft stores and Samsung kiosks during new product releases.
That way those poor fellas could at least make a little money.
I’d love to see a picture of that.
I ordered 16gb gold via AT&T at 12:00 am pacific and yet my shipping date is October
That’s what you get when you leave the company in the hands of Tim Cook.
It’s all tech innovation, sexy design and savvy marketing at Apple these days.
If only Steve Jobs had put a supply chain guy in charge. Then they’d be able to capitalize on all this. Innovation and visionary products don’t amount to much if you don’t have the production and logistics end of things nailed down.
Wait — what?!?
How quickly we forget all the different ways Apple has already been “doomed”.
I just got my 5s-32gb grey. It is a beautiful finely made device. It took 1 hour and ten minutes to move, update and sync.
For those critical of the availability of iPhones on launch day remember Apple will have gross sales of MORE then the ENTIRE music industry in the United States for the whole year in approximately 24 hours. Apple will gross more the HALF what Hollywood does for a year in a few days. To sell 5-8 million of ANYTHING in a few day is absolutely EXTRA-ORDINARY.
Order the model and color that is your favorite and be patient. In a week or maximum two, you’ll be richly rewarded and be very happy with your phone for the next few years. 🙂
The concern — since many stores are already selling out in some models and it’s not even noon in some of those stores — is that this is a repeat of the calendar Q4 of 2012 with some models of some items not catching up with demand for over three months.
Personally, I’m willing to take a wait and see position. I’m hopeful that Apple learned its lesson from last year. However, I’m not 100% sure they have.
If Apple gets the vast majority of the models on an immediate availability basis within the next couple weeks then we can say they’ve completely fixed the production and delivery problems. Conversely, if a month from now Apple still has several day (or several week) wait times for many models then the system is still broken.
We’ll just have to see.
When even the 64 GB black 5S gets to 10+ day shipping times within an hour or so of the start of online sales people begin to wonder.
Again, we’ll just have to see how this plays out.
Apple is (and has been since the 5 launch) to release in most countries simultaneously rather than start with the U.S., then move into other countries in the following weeks/months.
The fact is there is limited production capacity, and unless you want Apple to start production six months early and sit on the new iPhones (i.e., delay their launch by 6 months), there isn’t a lot Apple can do about it. The demand is simply too high.
People who want iPhones know when the new ones are coming out and they wait, get anxious, and many even buy when they really shouldn’t. So people need to stop bitching and just enjoy the fact that Apple is still making and improving the iPhones and we’re all not stuck with Windows Phone or Blackberry.
Unless you know something nobody else does- the 5S only comes in gold- silver & gunmetal. there is no black
If you want to nit pick get it right. The 5S comes in silver, gold and space gray. There is no “gunmetal”!
As far as I’m concerned, space is black. There is no such thing as “space gray” even if that is the official name for the color. There is certainly no “gunmetal”.
It took 1 hour and ten minutes to move, update and sync.
Isn’t it f***ing beautiful how easy it is to migrate from one iPhone to another? (Or from an iPod touch to an iPhone, as I did two years ago?) That’s a huge advantage that Apple has over Android that isn’t stressed often enough.
——RM
Come on you analysts and jouranalyst, get cracking. Put the whore street spin on it. Start some speculation that Apple can’t even get a few phones to their stores, their manufacturing process is a mess and their supply chain, ah their supply chain.
Does anyone know yet where that 64 bit chip was manufactured and by whom? I guess what passes off for investigative journalism these days is waiting in the Apple lobby for a press release to find out where. Must be a dangerous assignment, especially if you have to drive past those long long line ups that seem to be showing up all over the world. They must be those waiting to see the public reprimand of reviewers who had the audacity to say that the new Apple iPhone is the best in the world. How dare they.
Hurry and act fast, if you don’t the stock might go up and you might been seen as a stoopid moron for not doing your simplest of jobs. Oh wait, scratch that last statement. You’ve already proved time and time again how pathetically imbecilic you are.
Look at the bright side though, you are still geniuses compared to Anustralians.
I chose expedited shipping for $10 for 64 GB gray model 5S at 6:00 am CDT and was told 2-3 business days!
That’s funny. Last night I was so determined to get through the online ordering process that I didn’t take the time to find that expedited shipping option. So even though my phone is shipping in 1-3 days, it will probably take an extra week to arrive by snail mail. Damn.
Well, I’m 85% sure I’m upgrading my phone this year, but it looks like I’ll have to wait. Thankfully, iOS7 has made my 4S seem like a new phone, so that will tide me over until the rush has passed.
——RM
The tiny AT&T store I went to this morning (Brooklyn, NY) opened at 8AM and was sold out of the 16GB 5s by 9AM. There was only Space Grey in 32 and 64. They said no store, not even Apple, had the gold. You’d be surprised at how many people left the line because the gold wasn’t available. Men and women, including senior adults, leaving in total disgust. I thought gold was tacky and out of character for Apple, however it seems like a hit. I picked up two of the iPhone 5c for family and will wait until October for the 64 5s in white.
Got my 5s at AT&T store, traded in my 4s for $200.
…and 7.01 update hosed my new iP5s, looks like I lost ~1.5hr restoring from backup.
So, make sure to apply 7.01 before restoring content.
With all due respect to Cook & Co, you could have made people just a little bit happier by releasing iTunes 11.1 two weeks ago, the iPhone 5c and iOS7 last week, and the most impressive of them all, the iPhone 5s this week.
I could be wrong, but i suspect the Apple community would be no less stoked, and the poor retail stores and servers wouldn’t have to endure such a short-term hammering.
Does anyone know if the Verizon 5s is Unlocked like the 5 was?
How does one plan for record demand for a new product revision?
Samsung runs out of inventory: OMG it’s a run away hit!
Apple runs out of inventory: OMG they didn’t plan ahead what dummies!
Spin goes both ways according to who does the spinning.
As a joke I threw that in at the top of this discussion.
I don’t think that’s the narrative we’re seeing in the press. This looks like a genuine hit product, and the media seems to be covering it as such.
Apple is clearly not done innovating, and consumers are clearly not done with Apple.
The Apple thriving continues. I grin. It’s a good thing.
😀
I went to my local Apple store at 8:00 this morning to find organized huge queues. I grabbed an Apple shop assistant who told me only the grey iP5S model was available. It is clear to me that for some reasons either not enough Gold (and silver) models were made or they are being held back for some reason.
Could that be a buzz strategy? If so it’s a pretty frustrating one. If not W H Y did they not build enough?
There is something that screams ‘intentional ‘ to me ..