“By Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after the iPhone 5S went on sale in nine countries around the world, Apple (AAPL) had sold out its entire September stock,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
“The company’s U.S. online store shows all models in all colors unavailable before October,” P.E.D. reports. “In New York City, many of the more than 1,400 would-be customers who queued up outside Apple’s Fifth Ave. store Friday morning went home without a phone. ”
P.E.D. reports, “Meanwhile, the iPhone 5C, whose ship times had slipped to 3 to 7 days Friday, was back in stock. By Saturday the Apple Store was once again promising to ship every model within 24 hours.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Evidence that Apple’s Gold iPhone 5s shortage is deliberate – September 21, 2013
Many stores never had any gold Apple iPhones at all – September 20, 2013
Apple boosts production of gold iPhone 5s in response to heavy demand – September 20, 2013
The rarest of the rare: Apple’s iPhone 5s 64GB Gold – September 20, 2013
Carriers and non-Apple U.S. retailers will have almost no Gold or Silver iPhone 5s units in stores for tomorrow’s launch – September 19, 2013
iPhone 5s pre-orders quickly sell out in China; gold iPhone 5s sells out quickest of all – September 17, 2013
Anyone really surprised? I got two of them.
Lucky you. I have to wait a month to get mine.
Expected arrival date: October 21.
Had mine by 8:45am. Love it!
Nope! Not when they intentionally undeeproduce and piss people off!
Uh-huh. That’s exactly Apple’s strategy.
It’s a stupid “strategy” to not make a sale when the primary motives of Apple are to provide goods and services to the consumer.
Then tell Apple of your displeasure instead of ranting on this forum. You’ll get more sympathy from Apple than you will from the members of MDN. Spouting off here, like you have been for the past few months, only gets you labelled as a troll.
Good idea! I think I will call Tim Cook to inform him that Apple has not supplied enough iPhones to meet demand. Gee, thanks, if it weren’t for you Time Cook would be completely oblivious to this marketing fiasco.
Robert Scoble has stated several times that part of the 5s not being available for pre order was because they couldn’t make enough of them due to the finger print scanner. May not be a strategy but it could be a legitimate issue.
You have ZERO evidence for your assertion, so why make it?
Evidence of your haste to foolishly and wrongly accuse, you mis-spell ‘under-produce’.
Doesn’t it make sense to you that Apple are actually in the business of selling product, not the business of ‘pissing people off’?
It’s a troll. No need to respond.
Yes in the halls of Cupertino right now Tim Cook and his staff are laughing their asses off at all the fools who were denied purchasing an iPhone. Ha ha! Not. They already put in an order for a LOT more. Kinda tough satiating the demand of an entire world overnight. Thanks for appreciating that.
Tim Cook is on a thin line. He cannot continue to launch new products without stock to meet demand. Next time Apple should start making the iPhone 6 in August but not sell them until February or March. This should ensure enough supply for global demand. /s
Yah, then people would just complain that the product is already out of date. At least your comment was sarcastic, but I’m sure some people actually think that way. lol
I didn’t know Apple was making knickers troll.
Yes, of course. Apple’s strategy has always been to annoy people and drive their own stock price down. I like your razor sharp clear thinking. I like it a lot. For as long as it takes.
If I were Apple I would forbid you from having one-you don’t deserve it- it’s for the intelligent only…
Hhahahaha…rrrrrrrrright. Thank you for your input. You can go upstairs to your mommy’s kitchen and eat your PB&J now. Maybe get out of your Klingon outfit. It’s all gonna be ok.
Ya, Apple hates selling stuff. They want you to go home mad.
Bwwaaahahahahahahaha
You Tard
Nit picky, but any time on Saturday would not be less than 24 hours. Sales began at 12:01 Fri morning.
If it was not deliberate, then it was another colossal blunder by CEO Tim Cook.
And, silverhawk1, do you have any other take than calling everyone with less that worshipful praise for the once great company a “troll?” No? Didn’t think so.
Ig-no-ra-mus: Jay Morrison.
Choose your preferred derogative term, JM.but you routinely post crap on this forum. It isn’t crap because it it critical of Apple. It is crap because you repeat unfounded bullshit ad nauseum.
You have no class. And I mean that in a big way…a very big way.
Let your hair down KM
Lemmings like you, KingMe! provide for great amusement. If you like the state of affairs at Apple Inc. and AAPL – good for you. But for the intelligent few on this forum, these are very dark days – the Tim Cook era is a colossal nightmare.
Intelligent, rational, and honest people can handle criticism and are eager to debate. Fanbois, owing to their insecurities, idiocies, abs biases consider any criticism completely unbearable and unworthy of discussion.
At least Apple won’t be taking a billion dollar write off like our dear friend monkey boy had too. As stated, Apple had some issues with the fingerprint scanner which delayed production. Apple produced all three colors in about the same ratio to one another. I don’t think they anticipated the demand for the gold phone would be as high as it’s turning out. They’ll adjust and meet the demand, don’t worry. So you may have to wait a week or two. What’s the big deal? You really can’t wait?
The delay on sufficient yield of the fingerprint sensor probably caused the delay in production of the 5s model. The 5c was given the green light to go into production a month or two earlier than the 5s. As a result, the September batch of 5s was low. It still doesn’t explain the imbalance number of colors between the gray, silver, and gold.
Because the majority of folks buy Black iPhones. Seems smart to underproduce a style who’s popularity isn’t known yet. Either the person will buy a Black one or they’re excited enough to wait out the delay for a Gold or Silver one.
There’s very little chance someone will buy an Android phone just because the color isn’t isn’t stock at the time.
I’m sure they produced more gold units, it’s just that the vast majority went to HK & mainland China.
The 5S, 5C proving to the analysts how wrong they are for assuming that Smartphones market is saturation, the demands for Smartphone is HUGE!.
It was easy to sell out in Canada where I got my email confirmation at 12:01 and it was 7-10 day with delivery by OCTOBER 16???? I don’t know if there were any earlier times than that for a 64 space grey version.
Same situation same time in Canada. I order a Gold 32 GB. Same 7 to 10 business days, but mine is schedule to arrive between Oct 4 to 9. Just wonder why the different? Having order from Apple many a times they should hit the target on earlier Oct 4 date.
No surprise to many of us.
Apple sets records and standards and then breaks and re-invents them…Everyone is invited to play fair, but alas, not one of them is up to the task of innovating to that level.
Quality products make for quality applications and users , it’s not for nothing that Apple users are life long and loyal – They know and trust Apple.
You can’t take that experience and history away.
I wish it was the 1990s again. You had great music, quality movies, and shows that did not rely on fart jokes. You also had the Apple Newton, which was a real device, not a toy like these iPads and iPhones are. In the 90s, Apple made no-nonsense devices for people who want to get work done. Apple went mainstream in 2000, when they ditched the classic Mac, and gave us Unix for Hipsters. The 90s were perfect in every way.
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or you actually believe your own drivel. hahaha
You must either be a Bieber fangirl, or someone who was to young to remember and appreciate the 1990s in full. If the latter, I feel sorry for you. We had real rock bands such as Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, and Aphex Twin. Now it’s all teeny bopper pop, and that sad excuse for electronica that Lady Gaga and Skrillex makes. It must suck to be a 21st century teen.
Are you related to a one Zuntang?
Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be again…
Exactly – 7 to October days would not work today – so now they have to say…October!
Interesting observations, without any real data. By both the pundits and pontificators.
I walked up to the Ala Moana Apple Store yesterday about 12:30 in the afternoon. Bought two iPhone 5s Space Gray 64G ATT fully paid. 45 minutes later, I had them unlocked and have an “independent phone company” sim card installed. Works just fine. Can now travel around the world and get sim cards where ever I am. Lovely bunch of coconuts.
There were plenty of 5s’s available. None in Gold or white – sold out already. All colours of the 5c were available. Wait time – 3 minutes. Whew. Almost needed to send out for pizza.
The store was jammed. Like I had not seen it since the original opening. Amazing. Were people upset about no gold phones? Didn’t see anyone tearing their hair out or throwing a tantrum. Maybe that was over at the Microsoft Store where they were having cricket races.
Who bailed out Apple in 1997? Microsoft…which doomed Apple to a decade of hipster garbage. The iMacs of 1999 looked too much like toys, but I still tolerated it, I mean, it still had Classic Mac. But when the calendar rolled over to the New Millenium, they went full stupid. Mac OS X is the most unprofessional piece of garbage I have ever seen. Mac OS 9 had more class and sophistication. And when they replaced the Garamond font with Myrad Pro…I need a time machine, I can’t stand the 21st century.
Guess you better get the DeLorean time machine cranked up?
Who bailed out Apple in 1997? Microsoft…
OMF are you a DumTard 80s90sFan: Just STFU and stay home.
For the uninformed: Microsoft got caught red-handed stealing Apple QuickTime code from a 3rd party contractor. Microsoft REFUSED to return it. So Steve Jobs had a little backyard chat with Bill Gates. This is what Bill Gates allowed to happen:
1) Microsoft bought $150 million in non-voting Apple stock, sellable after 5 years. Microsoft made a HUGE profit off this investment.
2) Bill Gates appeared on a BIG BROTHER screen at MacWorld announcing to the world that Microsoft would not, as threatened, kill off Office for Mac. Instead they promised to provide it for 5 years AND give it an actual Mac GUI, instead of the crap MS GUI.
3) Bill Gates tossed Apple a large, undisclosed amount of cash under-the-table in order to stop Apple from suing MS’ ass off for code robbery.
4) Apple and Microsoft cross-licensed each other’s proprietary code for 5 years. This allowed Apple to write quality software for Windows, in particular QuickTime and iTunes.
Meanwhile, Apple has documented that they have $4 Billion in fluid assets on hand at the time. At no time did Apple contemplate bankruptcy, let along come close to it. Surprise!
Yeah right. Microsoft bailed out Apple. Shove that moron myth right back up your rectal pore, Apple haters. Meanwhile, I will be forever laughing at Steve Jobs convincing Bill Gates to plant his face on the BIG BROTHER screen at MacWorld. That has to be the cruelest joke ever pulled in tech history, and well deserved!
Why is this myth still exist? I’ve heard this several times this week from haters. Seriously are these guys that stupid? lol Amazing.
Every time this comes up, I enjoy a vision of Steve having Gates in a headlock.
It has to be one of those remarkable moments when Steve Jobs accomplished something extraordinary without resorting to a fit of emotion. Clearly the two of them were on friendly terms, knew each other from way back, and considering the headlock Jobs had on Gates over the QuickTime code, this came off as a very amiable set of Microsoft capitulations. But that oh so subtle move of putting Gates on the BIG BROTHER screen. What a master.
How soon they forget…
You had me until you described iTunes for Windows as”quality software”. I (have to) use both, and I have no beefs with iTunes on the Mac. On Windows … the horror, the horror.
Did I infer that QuickTime was ‘quality software’ on Windows. I know what you mean and have had plenty of comments from others to the same. But the story goes that with Apple having access to those secret APIs of Windows, held tightly to the chest by Microsoft, they were able to provide both QuickTime and iTunes on Windows of reasonable quality at least.
I should, I suppose, point out that despite having Apple’s proprietary code on hand, Microsoft came out with about 5 attempts to provide their own wannabe QuickTime-ish software for Mac with AWFUL results. I remember ‘NetShow’ being the first attempt and the guffaws of laughter from the Mac community. It was promptly killed by Microsoft. Eventually MS perpetrated the AVI standard, which limps along in life through today. But Microsoft killed that off. Eventually MS hit upon Silverlight, of which I have never had complaints. And then NetFlix dropped the format, essentially making all Microsoft attempts to duplicate the functionality of QuickTime a sum total FAILure.
Therefore, at least Apple did a better job with porting over media player software to Windows, by far, than MS did vice versa.
Thankx to Tim Cook for his logistics. Sir Jony for his making what is Good for me and what I now need. To Phil Schiller and Craig Federaghi for working to make sure what we do not see is still the very best. They are apple’s four musketeers or the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Again thank you for not making a cheap apple product and maintaining it is not about the money.
I’ve lived in the Apple camp since ’87, but I must disagree with your very last point: When I paid $1000 for a 20MB (yes, I said megabyte) external HD made to fit neatly under my MacPlus, I knew then as I do today that it has always been about the money.
I feel like I’m stating the obvious here, but Apple does not lose sales when it runs out of stock. It just gets more free press then any tech company in history. I think they know what they’re doing by now.
At the new flagship store at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, CA; the Gold iPhone was so popular that it sold out before the store even opened!!!
I guess that happens when you have ZERO units to sell.
I guess that happens in the barren imaginations of Apple-haters.
@Derek, Look at my history, I friggin’ LOVE Apple, and have bought a new iPhone (and iPads) on every launch day.
Are you suggesting that I, and everyone else who reported not getting Gold iPhones despite being one of the first people in lines, are “imagining” that we all were turned away?
What store were you at that had any significant stock of Gold iPhones?
When you make INNOVATIVE and GROUND BREAKING stuff like the capacitance fingerprint sensor even the best supply chain guy Cook (who has won numerous AMR top supply chain awards) is going to have problems, only those who do NOT innovate (like the apple copy cats) don’t have manufacturing issues like this but then again they are selling tech from Apple two year ago ….
No I’m not happy Apple has 5S supply problems but I’ll RATHER that then they ‘play safe’ and do not innovate.
I really worry the motherfuvkers will worry the production will affect iphone number of sales !!!!
Samsung is now very very sad. Samsung crying. 😥 😥 😥 😥 😥 😥 😥 😥 😥 😥 😥
Cheer up Samsung: You get the leftover loosers market! That’s something! You like eating dog scraps, right? Yummy yum. Kibbles and bits for you today. Very nutritious. 😆
No, I didn’t say you could eat THE DOG! I said the dog SCRAPS!!!
Your dog is named Scraps? 🙂
An awful lot of the posters here are rude to each other. I doubt that they would be as disrespectful if they were standing face-to-face to the others on this forum.
It’s just like when we get in a car and flip someone off we wouldn’t dare do to face-to-face. We become fearless with anonymity.
And I think that this is a bad thing for our society: we’re becoming anonymous assholes. I include myself, because I’ve done it myself. That’s why I use my real name on MDN: to keep me from saying things that I would be ashamed of later.
Just goes to show what I know — had assumed that would be the last to sell.