“In Hong Kong, it’s all about the Gold iPhone 5S,” Juro Osawa and Lorraine Luk report for The Wall Street Journal.
“Apple Inc. has asked its suppliers to increase production of the gold-colored iPhone 5S by an additional one-third after seeing strong demand, people familiar with the situation said,” Osawa and Luk report. “It isn’t clear whether there are currently supply constraints manufacturing the new iPhone.”
Osawa and Luk report, “At the Apple retail store in the city’s Causeway Bay shopping district, a long line went around the building, with many security guards making sure that there was room for pedestrians. While the store didn’t disclose any estimates of how many people may have showed up, the line seemed much longer compared to last year’s iPhone 5 launch in Hong Kong, which fell on a regular business day. This time, iPhones began selling on a public holiday.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
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
It’s the gold rush all over again!
It’s simple marketing 101.
People wan’t what they can’t have.
But I wanted it way before I found out I couldn’t have it. (Not for a couple weeks anyway.)
I got in line this morning at an Apple store (Southlake Tx) to buy a 5s gold. As soon as the door opened the gold and silver sold out. 3 hours later the grey is still available. Just guessing but I think they had 100 greys for each gold and silver. I cannot believe Apple executives could miss this bad. Something really stupid happened. Bottom line is you can get any color you want as long as it is gray. Over promised under delivered. Gold is has the center of the display. Clearly Apple knew it would be the most desire alb but built the least number of them. Mr. Cook has some explaining to do. Maybe we will get an apology letter.
I can’t believe that they underestimated demand that much, nor can I believe that they intentionally made this much of a shortage (or actually intentionally created a shortage of any kind). There must be something about the application of the gold paint that causes very low yields.
Excellent take, Larry. It’s the very definition of failed leadership to run out of a product in high demand. And, it’s probably deliberate – designed to create the impression of being overwhelmed by the demand. Pure crap. The right decision would be to make more than enough because they would ALL sell between now and the iPhone 6. Manipulation doesn’t really work but it does expose stupidity at the top.
Oh baloney. Really. How many people who want gold will not have one in a week or two? But headlines screaming hot demand? Priceless. When was the last time you EVER heard of a line forming for an android piece of junk? Apple has played this just right…. once again…
I don’t think Apple played anything. What benefit does Apple get for making a shortage of the gold 5S? If anything, it will tick off some people and they will run get an Android phone (yeah, right). Last week if you has asked me, I’d guess the silver would be #1, then grey, then gold. I think they did the best they could with the information they had at the time.
Gold was being dumped on when it was rumored apple was making one. Analysts, experts, and even people on this sight said apple was nuts, who would want a cheap looking gold phone.
Further evidence that people don’t know what they want until Apple shows it to them.
Better to sell out than to have an a bunch left over – a la MS Surface.
Nice problem to have, unlike surface POS’s you can’t give away.
I think the 5s looks good in all three metallic finishes. Apple should come out with others – the 5s would look great with a Copper finish. Imagine the lines if they came out with a ‘Platinum’ 5s!
The copper finish is magical. After holding it in your sweaty hands it slowly turns green.
Just saw a stack of gray 5s in store. I was wrong about the ratio of gray to gold and silver. More like 300 grays for each silver or gold. This is unquestionably intentional. Gold is the star of every display in the store, but not for sale.
Frankly, I don’t think anyone could have predicted this mania for gold all of a sudden. But the iPhone has become the gold standard. In any case, the gold iPhone is worth more than its weight in gold!
It was a sure bet the two of the three colors would sell out before the third. No matter which went first, somebody, somewhere would be bitching. I think the bitching would have been louder if the grey sold out first, since it is the only one with a black surround for the screen.
I think I would have put money on the silver being the least popular, since it is the only one that doesn’t scream “I’ve got the new one” from across the room. If they had offered the gold with a black face I’d have been in line too. As it is, I can wait a few days.
Didn’t some pundit in another story predict that the gold wouldn’t sell because it’s gaudy.
——RM
My daughter was number 100 at Palo Alto store. University, not Stanford. She could not get a gold 32, they were gone. But the coolest thing, as she was about to enter the store Tim Cook appeared. She snapped a pic of course. I think he went over to the Stanford store as well. The two stores are only about a mile apart. Maybe 400 in each line. They handed out certificates an hour before opening.
Apple should introduce a new “pro” level iPhone color every year. I have to believe a certain amount of the gold interest is simply due to it being something new.
OMG LOL!!! Takes a genius to figure that out and put together a not really news story…
“Gold is best”