“If you’ve been keeping up with the iPhone 4S/5 speculation recently, any hopes you had that the device would be announced at Steve’s WWDC keynote on Monday will be well and truly crushed by now,” Killian Bell reports for Cult of Mac. “But if a new device isn’t right around the corner, why is AT&T running out of the iPhone 4?”
“If you head on to the iPhone page on AT&T’s website today, the only black iPhone 4 devices they have to offer are all refurbished; there are no new handsets in stock,” Bell reports. “When Apple stock runs out like this it’s usually a very good indication that a product refresh is on its way.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Stand by for a new model
The model could be actually called iPhone 5 since iOS 5 premiers.
It will fit better than iPhone 4s.
Yet maybe new iPhone will be delayed, as rumours say (but I still see no reason why; there is nothing what will happen in technology development in the nearest three months that would make Apple postpone the update to September).
Don’t get why anyone would care whether it’s called iPhone 4s, 5 or Sally. But I guess a lot of folks really have to have an ‘iPhone 5’ and if the same device is called a ‘iPhone 4S’ there will be lot’s of tears and diaper changes needed.
Good. I’m tired of my wife not having a FaceTime capable phone and I’m dying to play switcheroo.
Analysts as unwitting pawns; who’d of imagined?
Am I missing something here? i checked the iPhone page and all models ship within 24 hours.
If you go to AT&T’s page the only black iPhone 4s are refurbished units.
Not true. Hit the link for plan info for either 16GB or 32 GB iPhone4. Gives black or white options.
This may just be a AT&T thing.
Just checked the apple store.. Ships in 24 hours.
It’s when you can’t get them from apple, that’s when you know something new is coming.
It could also be that apple has the largest inventory and ATT& just ran out of their stock and can no longer refresh it from Apple. Apple could very well be draining the last of their stock but we wouldn’t know until it happened.
Interesting…
Has Apple pulled a Rope-A-Dope?
They’d have to be super ninja to pull that off. In every ios device launch there have been massive lines and every physical location… but how cool would it be if steve walked out and pulled a one more thing- the iphone 5 is available today! That would epify epic as far as device launches go with everyone scrambling to the nearest apple store. I’d predict stampede deaths a la $30 DVD player sale at walmart.
After the embarrassing leaks of iPhone 4 last year, Apple is proving this year that nobody will ever see or hear anything concrete about iPhone 5 in public until Steve shows it. iPhone 5 will most likely debut Monday at WWDC, to ship later.
+1
i really hope so
Pehaps “dads & grads” is the reason for the AT&T shortage (this is a reference to the graduation season, when college and high school graduates get gifts for good grades, as well as the to the Father’s Day in the US, when American families tend to get gifts for their pater familias).
Father’s Day is celebrated in Canada too. My brother, who is not a father, thinks it’s just another merchandising racket like Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving and Halloween.
He’s probably right.
Who cares? You get a free iPhone!
In the UK all the networks and suppliers have dropped prices or tried to make iPhones as attractive as possible.
The 3GS is free on most plans at most carries some like o2 its free on all tariffs – this hasnt been the case for much of the year.
The iPhone 4 can now be had for free on a £35 tariff, when it was previously £69 at the lowest and on average £120 plus.
Plus the affiliate stuff like cashback has been pushing iPhones over the last month or so with vodafone, o2 doing £160 back orange £140 etc (o2 dont normally do cashback for iphone, and orange usually offer £40)
If apple don’t release i new iPhone what about all the people that have been waiting to upgrade – they could go elsewhere, would apple leave them like that?
I dunno after the gizmodo disaster last year apple could have been feeding everyone crap to keep this one a secret.
Like it or not the iPhone 4 was not there best outing, it must cost them more having phones for different carriers etc too.
I will not be surprised if the new one is announced. In fact i’d be properly chuffed!
Will it be the iPhone 4S the iPhone 5 the cheap iPhone or the iPhone nano though.
I just dont get it, since when did they do a press release to announce all that was happening before it actually happened.
Godda be a one more thing.
“Like it or not the iPhone 4 was not there best outing, it must cost them more having phones for different carriers etc too.”
Apple has very comfortable profit margins on iPhones, including getting part of every subscriber’s payment. Also, more users = more apps sold, iAds revenue, etc.
So I do not think this is a problem.
Apple stopped receiving subscriber payments a couple of years ago!
Very unlikely. Why would iPhone 4 be out of stock when iPhone 5 is introduced? iPhone 4 will still be sold, albeit at a lower price, just as the 3GS today.
They may have all production lines cranking out the iPhone 5.
My place of work says they are still an active item in the system. Plus tried adding a line to my AT&T plan and it says ships in 24 hours for both the refurb model and the normal one. Can post pictures I’d you want
The story is bogus and the update is misleading. The black iPhones were never out of stock. The blogger was just clueless and made unnecessary assumptions.
BS … Cult of Mac has “modified” the original story to say ATT has “restocked” iPhone 4s.
They effed up.
i really hope the next iphone is still on routine schedule. i can also see the 3GS going to the free category. but who knows i am not going to predict anything with apple cause whatever they do, it usually ends in huge profits anyway. its kinda like they know what they are doing.
In the UK Orange were doing free offers on the 3GS. The offer ended in the middle of May so if you’d bought one and waited for a few days to arrive your 14 day return period would expire before the 6th of June.
There is usually a lull in sales in anticipation of a new version of iPhone this hasn’t happened because of the rumoured September release. Perhaps it’s all been a very clever bluff by Apple and we’ll see a new iPhone on Monday.
Regardless, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again a cheap or free iPhone 4 will sell like hotcakes!
I am looking at AT&T’s online store for an upgrade and all the iPhone 4 models are listed (new and refurbished) from $19 to upgrade to a iPhone 3GS to $299 for a new iPhone 4 32G (black or white). I am not buying one, just added it to my cart to see if it is available and apparently it is.
AT&T no longer pushed Apple products like they used to. When they lost their exclusivity the move the iPhone down on the priority. There was no stock at any AT&T store for a long time and they were quick to tell you to go to the Apple store to get one.
The love affair is over!
Isn’t the iPhone 4S just an iPhone 4G with an updated OS?