Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
agreed, well ... people are queuing for couple weeks (or months) of exclusivity =P

Personally i felt that they shouldn't stop taking orders in the apple store ... that would be a good way to gauge the number of sales so next year they could use the number to produce X% of orders in previous year and then add Y% of estimated sales increase this year.

If I had to guess, I think next year they will make absolutely as MANY as they possibly can... Like they did this year, and the year before... & the year before........
 
agreed, well ... people are queuing for couple weeks (or months) of exclusivity =p

That would make Apple just look incompetent in supply chain planning. I can understand the marketing guys, but this stuff shouldn't last for too long, because it will make people feel irritated, which is in turn not good for the brand image.

They just introduced the 5S too early, which is why production could not produce enough units for a smooth roll out. That's the truth.
 
This gets funnier every time I read it.

This amused me incredibly. Just brilliant. It kind of reinforced the poor sales techniques of the carriers. A friend had been contacted by EE here in the UK. She was waiting for the 5S however the sales rep was trying to flog her the 5 in the white. His pitch was that the 5 is exactly the same and there is no difference other than the innards. It would be wasted on her as it's all stuff she wouldn't have any understanding of!
 
Interesting that Gold is so popular. I cannot imaging Steve Jobs allowing Apple to make and sell a Gold iPhone.

Well, considering the gold ipod mini or nano or whatever they were calling it at the time was one of his, I'd go with you being wrong.

compareipods.jpg


----------

This amused me incredibly. Just brilliant. It kind of reinforced the poor sales techniques of the carriers. A friend had been contacted by EE here in the UK. She was waiting for the 5S however the sales rep was trying to flog her the 5 in the white. His pitch was that the 5 is exactly the same and there is no difference other than the innards. It would be wasted on her as it's all stuff she wouldn't have any understanding of!

I've been using carphone warehouse to upgrade my iphone since the 3GS. I was very wary of them at first, having had a bad experience of them as manager of a business account for my college (they accepted our account and our order for some phones, then didn't deliver them because they had a company policy of not delivering mobile phones to educational establishments... yes I know that's crazy. No I'm not making it up. Yes. I. KNOW. It's. Crazy. Really.) but they've been very very good for me as a private customer. Ring them up on release day, tell them what model iphone I want on which carrier. Wait in for it to be delivered next day, no problem at all... actually I'm stuck indoors waiting for a 5s right now.
 
That would make Apple just look incompetent in supply chain planning. I can understand the marketing guys, but this stuff shouldn't last for too long, because it will make people feel irritated, which is in turn not good for the brand image.

They just introduced the 5S too early, which is why production could not produce enough units for a smooth roll out. That's the truth.

So.... in your opinion, if the analysts are correct & they sell 8 million in opening weekend.... they shouldn't even come out with a new phone if they can't produce well more than 8 million per week???
Excellent idea, genius! No, wait....... we'd just NEVER get new phones if anybody cared what you consider "incompetent".
Guess what, Mr. Competency? Phones are MUCH more popular in their 1st week sold than, say... their last week sold. There would be EPIC amounts of waste & empty buildings, and specialized machinery gathering dust if they followed your brilliant idea of not coming out with phones, unless they can churn out enough for the INITIAL pent up demand & go immediately to supply/demand homeostasis.
Do you think those fancy machines that diamond cut the iPhone 5/5S are easily repurposed? How many extras should they build to please you?
I'm telling you... it is BLATANTLY obvious to me that these phones are selling as fast as they can be built, more sooner than later they will be built as fast as they can be sold. If you seriously believe this is anything other than a normal ramp up for a WILDLY popular product, with nuances in the supply/distribution chain that are ironed out as soon as feasibly possible... I just don't know what to tell you.. quit rewatching Enemy of the State?? There's seriously no conspiracy here.
 
Why are people here complaining? Do they want the response to NOT be incredible? :confused:

They just butt-hurt Apple is doing well. Really someone said he was tired of Apple using of the word every launches but when every Apple launches are success, what else to use? :rolleyes:
 
They just butt-hurt Apple is doing well. Really someone said he was tired of Apple using of the word every launches but when every Apple launches are success, what else to use? :rolleyes:

If all they're after is a bit of variety in the phrasing, well there's probably a thesaurus app that Apple could download for that, in fairness.
 
Absolutely yes, Acceptable is 8%-10% of the customer base.

Based on subscriber numbers, ATT has about 107 Million, Verizon has 116 Million, Sprint has about 64 Million and T-Mobile has about 44 million customers (US Number only). Let's add that up ...331 Million customers. If they only sold 8 Million phones, that is only enough phones for 2.4% of the US Market. Really. I would take to guess that at least 10% of the US market would want the new iPhone. Let's add in the rest of the world and watch that % shrink even lower. So, this is all a Marketing ploy and a lot less about how many they can sell or want to sell.

I just hope their sales figures don't include the people waiting 7-10 business days to get their phones. But we will never know.

Ok, so where would you store those 10%? In warehouses? Increasing expense just because you want to have 34mil available at launch? I see your point and it makes sense but it would increase the cost and lets say that the iPhone would be a flop (hypothetically, people would wait for 6 as 5s is basically 5 with little tweaks) so now you have 34mil phones but the demand is not there so you will have hard time selling them. I know its unlikely but a business should bet on the fact that you sell it. Look at microsoft what happened with their tablets and zune. Or motorola's. This is better business practise as you don't risk too much and you create demand which also causes free advertisement as people will hear about the low availabilty and will wonder why, so they go home, look at the phone and maybe because of this curiosity they will decide to get it too.

Like it or not, this system is very clever even if customers might get frustrated at the beginning.
And in 2 monhts this will all be back to "normal" so I think that is a sacrifice worth making :)
 
Oh, I forgot to mention, I had my old 4S/Blk/32GB device - in lovely, near new condition - lying around (was using it as an emergency backup and development phone). I took it with me to trade-in.

The AT&T Store gave me $205.00 for it. I'll take that. :D

(I probably could have gotten more for it, but I got it subsidized so I made 67% of the purchase price of the device back, so I'm thrilled...)

And that is two years later. Nice.
 
If Apple supplies 10 million iPhones on the launch day, there would be no need for lining in store.
Just come when you want, where you want and grab one.
That doesn't look good on headlines. Or any lines.

There would be no people try hard enough to get their hands on one then.

Imagine you can get booze legally for $1 a kilo. Yeah that would be like that.

Your theory has a hole. Customers didn't know the supply ahead of time. People would have lined up whether apple had 10MM phones or 2MM phones.
 
A friend of mine in downtown Manhattan picked up his 5s with ease during his lunch break and a very short line at an ATT store. Not sure what all those idiots camping outside the apple store are doing (meaning the ones that aren't there for advertising).
 
This is the same thing critics said last year, with the iPhone 5. Only to find out that Apple sold five million units, the most iPhones ever sold in a single day.

Let's see the numbers this year.

I don't think you can use facts or even rationals to this bunch.
 
"Incredible" demand?

Isn't just about everything Apple says about just about any Apple product "incredible" -- at least when it's not "amazing", "unprecedented", or other unnecessarily hyperbolic adjective?

As with Chicken Little (aka Henny Penny), when everything is over-hyped, nobody will pay attention when the singular phenomenon occurs.

(I write this as one who loves using Apple hardware and software!)
 
They simple planned the release too early for which they obviously have some strategic reasons. The 5S was going to be the phone I was going to get, but if they don't have normal stock levels in the London stores next week, I'll just wait and buy the Nexus 5 instead.

Considering the Nexus 5 hasn't been officially announced yet, who knows for sure exactly when it will achieve its normal stock levels? Also, since it isn't Apple or Samsung there likely won't be 5-10 million people looking to buy one the first month, which makes it easier to fill demand.

The only "strategic" reason for releasing now is that their fiscal year ends next Saturday and they have established a pattern since the 4S of a third-weekend-in-September release date. The sales jolt helps keep year-on-year numbers comparable, and it also gets Apple some buzz going into the holiday season. The holiday quarter is what is most important to Apple, and by preparing it for an early September launch they pretty much ensure that it will be in ready supply for the holiday rush.

Plus, if they have 5 million phones they can sell now, they want to sell them now, not later. Sure, they might wish they had 10 million phones now, but they'll sell what they have.
 
Funny how apple will say "incredible demand" but won't give specific numbers like the last two launches
 
Oh, I forgot to mention, I had my old 4S/Blk/32GB device - in lovely, near new condition - lying around (was using it as an emergency backup and development phone). I took it with me to trade-in.

The AT&T Store gave me $205.00 for it. I'll take that. :D

(I probably could have gotten more for it, but I got it subsidized so I made 67% of the purchase price of the device back, so I'm thrilled...)


Very, very nice. I sold a 2 year old iP4 last year for $200. I gave the older gentleman a very nice price and there was no haggling involved. I know I could have gotten more too*. Selling to ATT is much easier than dealing with craigslist creeps.

*Within minutes of posting my email was flooded with responses. A few low ballers, but mostly people wanting to buy it now.
 
Didn't the idiot analysts only 7 days ago predict that Apple would sink because these phones are way overpriced, not exciting enough, and would therefore cripple consumer demand for these phones? Where are those bozo forecasters hiding now?
 
Didn't the idiot analysts only 7 days ago predict that Apple would sink because these phones are way overpriced, not exciting enough, and would therefore cripple consumer demand for these phones? Where are those bozo forecasters hiding now?

Counting the pallets of unsold 5C phones?

(They were calling the 5C overpriced, after all.)
 
Sadly, no stores in our area got a lot. Best Buy had a small handful (I think two), the AT&T stores about the same. Plenty of 5C, as you mentioned. But who really came on launch day for a 5C? Well, I am sure a small minority did, keyword being minority.

Yeah exactly. Although there were people in line who took FOREVER to buy their phones walking out with the 5c. They do look better in person.

----------

Well, considering the gold ipod mini or nano or whatever they were calling it at the time was one of his, I'd go with you being wrong.

Image


Yep, that is the mini. They've made gold/yellow in several generations.

iPodNano7.101212.001.jpg
 
Is it harder for Apple to build the gold one vs. the grey? Or they really misjudged demand.
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.