Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Sells Out of iPhone 4S Pre-Order Stocks for Launch Day in U.S.

Couple of days into this and phone sells out?? Come on please...this tactic gets old....not all consumers are ignorant. Lame hassle for those who really wanted or needed to upgrade. Glad I am not one upgrading this go!

Oooooooohhhh....everbody stock is limited and going out!!! Quick grab one or want one they are selling so fast we once again can't keep our supply up with the demand. :rolleyes:
 
ultravioletfly said:
The 3GS is a dog compared to the iPhone 4. If you prefer creaky plastic to glass and steel, go with Android.
Click to expand...

You forgot to mention the slow processor, awful camera, and pathetic screen that was terrible before it was even released. Seriously, the 3G and 3GS screens are so bad that they should be banned.
 
rockinred said:
Couple of days into this and phone sells out?? Come on please...this tactic gets old....not all consumers are ignorant. Lame hassle for those who really wanted or needed to upgrade. Glad I am not one upgrading this go!

Oooooooohhhh....everbody stock is limited and going out!!! Quick grab one or want one they are selling so fast we once again can't keep our supply up with the demand. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Did you not read the other articles? AT&T sold 200,000 just by themselves in 12 hours (compared to 100,000 iPhone 4's in the same time period last year). We'll see if Apple breaks the 600,000 sold for all carries, worldwide total in 24 hours from last launch. I'd say 200k at AT&T is a good start. 1 Mil isn't looking so crazy right now.
 
Last edited:
Sold out, that is horrible, whatever will I do.

You think they will have some more available by March 2012, that is what I am eligible for an upgrade. :rolleyes:

In all seriousness, I think the phone is a fine phone, I just don't get the upgrade after a year thing. Hell I just got my iPhone 4 last December...

Besided, if I did upgrade, my phone and ipad 2 would both have more processing power than the computer I am typing on...
 
rockinred said:
Couple of days into this and phone sells out?? Come on please...this tactic gets old....not all consumers are ignorant. Lame hassle for those who really wanted or needed to upgrade. Glad I am not one upgrading this go!

Oooooooohhhh....everbody stock is limited and going out!!! Quick grab one or want one they are selling so fast we once again can't keep our supply up with the demand. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Hey if you believe this is a marketing ploy, and one that works, then why doesn't any iPhone competitors try it? Of course we know why - Apple is actually making iPhones as fast as possible and it's not a tactic and Apple & the cell co's have hard sales numbers to back it up whereas to-date no Android, BB, or Win Mo phone has come close to iPhone pre-order #s.
 
applebook said:
You forgot to mention the slow processor, awful camera, and pathetic screen that was terrible before it was even released. Seriously, the 3G and 3GS screens are so bad that they should be banned.
Click to expand...

No. It's still good. I'm still staring at my iPhone 3G while waiting for iPhone 4S to lauch here. It's just iPhone 4 retina display came long which is undoubtedly better.
 
wovel said:
Umm kind of difference between trying to build a sufficient inventory for launch and essentially not selling anything outside of your on organization in a full quarter or more...



220k was one carrier in one country. Pre-orders opened for 7 countries and 15+ carriers at the same time. Estimates were the US carriers confirmed 500k pre-orders in 12 hrs, I have not seen numbers for other countries.



Apple does nor provide or manage mobile data service.
Click to expand...

I am well aware of that. I was responding to a post about how the 64gb iPhone wasn't a big deal because of icloud. Considering AT&T and verizon both have throttling in their TOS, and I doubt sprint will be far behind, I was saying that 64gb is a big deal for me, and will be for a lot of people, regardless of icloud or not.
 
Preparing for shipment!

Just checked my order status for an iPhone 4S 64GB Black at Apple.com and the status has changed to:


Preparing for Shipment:
We are preparing your item(s) to ship. While your order is being prepared, we are unable to modify your order details. Once your item ships, we will email you a Shipment Notification with complete order details.
Click to expand...

I ordered about 2:45AM PT Friday.
 
rockinred said:
Couple of days into this and phone sells out?? Come on please...this tactic gets old....not all consumers are ignorant. Lame hassle for those who really wanted or needed to upgrade. Glad I am not one upgrading this go!

Oooooooohhhh....everbody stock is limited and going out!!! Quick grab one or want one they are selling so fast we once again can't keep our supply up with the demand. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Right, and I'm sure the "let's manufacture a whole bunch of iPhone 4s and flood the market so they'll never sell out" is a MUCH smarter marketing strategy. :rolleyes:

Marketing ploy or not, it worked. At the end of the day, Apple has to be profitable for it to continue innovating; Welcome to capitalism.
 
Apples got plenty of phones to sell. Then there's the fact they can afford to constrict the supply in order to create the illusion of a shortage. Apple plays it's customers, it suppliers, the press and everyone else, very skillfully. They didnt get to the top by playing by the rules.
 
vitzr said:
Apples got plenty of phones to sell. Then there's the fact they can afford to constrict the supply in order to create the illusion of a shortage. Apple plays it's customers, it suppliers, the press and everyone else, very skillfully. They didnt get to the top by playing by the rules.
Click to expand...

Like myself (and others) have pointed out, taking possibly over 1 million preorders for a single day's worth of sales is quite the task as it is. Not to mention the fact that thousands more will have to be available to sell in Apple Stores, AT&T stores, Verizon, Sprint, and 12 other international carriers all on Friday morning.

Unless you know a better way to get all of these units from the heart of mainland China across several continents and a few oceans, I suggest you take off your tinfoil hat.
 
Everyone's talking about specs and names and marketing, but let's not overlook the major thing here.

It seems like, and we won't know for sure for a while, that Apple had maybe twice the supply ready this time around, perhaps even more. All we really know is that AT&T sold twice as many phones in the same time period, and there's actually 4 (in the US) stores to buy from instead of just 2.

Well, Apple promised to make this the fastest rollout ever, and wow, it seems they needed it. Jeff Williams sure has his work cut out for him. I would be fascinated to see the logistical operation behind such a massive rollout. Tim Cook as former COO certainly had a big role in planning this, so he's got to be feeling pretty good now as CEO watching the sales numbers come in and the shipments go out over the next few months. I think Wall Street will have a healthy respect for the new CEO after this launch, erasing any nervousness over Steve Jobs stepping down and his tragic death.

No doubt they'll learn a lot and plan for an even bigger launch for the iPhone 6 (as the next phone will be the sixth phone, not the fifth). It would not surprise me that most of the sales now are from 3G, 3GS, and non-iPhone customers, and next time around it will mostly be 3GS, 4, and non-iPhone customers, which is certainly a bigger pool of upgraders, especially as the dumb phone customer is turning more and more towards smart phones.


I think Apple will settle into a fall launch schedule, going forward. It's a great time of year to do it, as the supply chain will probably be running pretty smoothly in time for the big holiday demand, and it can continue to take a big bite out of whatever market share their competitors will want to get that time of year. The fall used to be iPod time, but iPods are pretty much going out of fashion over at Apple. They're not really second class devices yet, but certainly iPhones and iPads take a chunk out of the market and it makes sense to release new low end iPods at the same time as iPhones, with the iPod Touch perhaps coming out in the spring with new iPads.


Overall, I'm not surprised in the least that the 4S was so successful in preorder, but it is certainly impressive to see the numbers come in. I'm particularly hopeful that Sprint does a massive amount of business, perhaps attracting switchers from AT&T and Verizon. I'm not a Sprint customer, but competition is a good thing. I'm encouraged by word that Sprint is very happy, and their preorders exceeded their expectations.
 
CalBoy said:
Like myself (and others) have pointed out, taking possibly over 1 million preorders for a single day's worth of sales is quite the task as it is. Not to mention the fact that thousands more will have to be available to sell in Apple Stores, AT&T stores, Verizon, Sprint, and 12 other international carriers all on Friday morning.

Unless you know a better way to get all of these units from the heart of mainland China across several continents and a few oceans, I suggest you take off your tinfoil hat.
Click to expand...

not only that, but as a business you're only going to make a set amount based on previous sales so you don't get stuck with sitting inventory. they can't help that every iPhone breaks the last one's records.
 
makingdots said:
No. It's still good. I'm still staring at my iPhone 3G while waiting for iPhone 4S to lauch here. It's just iPhone 4 retina display came long which is undoubtedly better.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if you've used other smartphones before, but even back in 2008 and definitely in 2009, the 3G screen became bottom-of-the-barrel compared to the competition. The Motorola Droid arrived in late 2009 (I think), and its display is at least 3 times superior: IPS, 854x480, 97% color gamut, good blacks, etc.
 
I'm not completely surprised that this was an incremental advancement, as much as I'd hoped there would have been a big "one more thing."

However, if you are going to make an iconic phone ("the phone," if you will), to do a major redesign each year seems somewhat unrealistic, even for Apple. Also, by making a major redesign annually, you risk diluting the impact of the phone.

Furthermore, technological limitations hamstring what one can do. While Apple could have made the new phone the "iPhone 4G," I'm guessing that Apple decided that more of their customers would prefer better talk time over speed with limited availability. Most people yearning for 4G are likely early adopters/tinkers that gravitate to Android phones.
 
PlaceofDis said:
not only that, but as a business you're only going to make a set amount based on previous sales so you don't get stuck with sitting inventory. they can't help that every iPhone breaks the last one's records.
Click to expand...

Yeah, a lot of people have no idea how poisonous idle inventory is for a business. Apple will probably sell close to a typical month's worth of phones in the first few days. That's already a remarkable amount; there's no way they could have reasonably made more phones available without taking a huge inventory risk.
 
Why are so many pissed? I cant to check the speed difference with my wife's iphone4 on ATT.
 
*LTD* said:
It'll go something like this:

iPhone 4S will fail! It's a dud!

(Product sells in record numbers upon release)

All the iSheep bought it! Suckers!

(Apple posts record sales of iPhone 4S the following quarter, increasing market share, with barely more than two models.)

But Android still has greater share! Google is all about choice!

(iPhone 4S tops consumer satisfaction reports. Again.)

There must be something wrong with the survey/data/people, and/or the numbers are skewed/Apple bought everyone off (every year.)
Click to expand...

Soooo true.

I mean, I told the data about "consumer satisfaction" and "% switching between OS" to this friend of mine and all he said was you can't trust those surveys. lol I was like "ok then".

I didn't think 4S "would not sell" but TBH I am surprised it sells that well.
 
*LTD* said:
It'll go something like this:

iPhone 4S will fail! It's a dud!

(Product sells in record numbers upon release)

All the iSheep bought it! Suckers!

(Apple posts record sales of iPhone 4S the following quarter, increasing market share, with barely more than two models.)

But Android still has greater share! Google is all about choice!

(iPhone 4S tops consumer satisfaction reports. Again.)

There must be something wrong with the survey/data/people, and/or the numbers are skewed/Apple bought everyone off (every year.)
Click to expand...

That's pretty much how it is :)
 
I thought that Sprint was not getting the iPhone 4S? Now this is interesting.:confused:

----------
MacNewsFix said:
I'm not completely surprised that this was an incremental advancement, as much as I'd hoped there would have been a big "one more thing."

However, if you are going to make an iconic phone ("the phone," if you will), to do a major redesign each year seems somewhat unrealistic, even for Apple. Also, by making a major redesign annually, you risk diluting the impact of the phone.

Furthermore, technological limitations hamstring what one can do. While Apple could have made the new phone the "iPhone 4G," I'm guessing that Apple decided that more of their customers would prefer better talk time over speed with limited availability. Most people yearning for 4G are likely early adopters/tinkers that gravitate to Android phones.
Click to expand...

And after owning the Android for a month get pissed at how they don't like it. Its the typical Dogma kind of person. I still don't see the need for that much speed when the battery drops so much. I am more excited that like the Macbook Air they brought out bluetooth 4.0

Way to many perfectionist who don't seem to have any idea on the reality of the world.

----------
brewser said:
Why are so many pissed? I cant to check the speed difference with my wife's iphone4 on ATT.
Click to expand...

Because some people hate winners. And we know that the iPhone 4S will sell fine and those that can't afford it will bitch and moan at every little thing they can think or find fault with. I for one am glad it did not change because I like the design and glass look of the iPhone 4 and that to me is a good thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back