Apple's Online Store in U.S. Now Listing All iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Models as In Stock

[MacRumors]

Apple's Online Store in the U.S. is now listing all capacities and colors of iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus from all carriers as in stock, with the company now appearing to have now achieved supply and demand balance. The SIM-free iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are also showing an avaliability of 1 business day.

Last month, shipping estimates for the 16/64GB iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus improved drastically, with estimates improving to 3 to 5 days in early December and jumping to 1 to 3 day and 1 day estimates later in the month. The larger-capacity 128GB devices were somewhat constrained throughout the month, with estimates remaining at 7 to 10 days and jumping to 3 to 5 days in December.

Apple's Online Store in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany are also listing both devices as in stock. Meanwhile, the company's other stores in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico are showing a shipping estimate of 1 business day.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have experienced severely constrained supplies since their launch in September, with Apple working to improve available supply. Apple was even said to be delaying mass production on its larger-screen iPad Pro to puts its efforts towards the iPhone 6 Plus.

Article Link: Apple's Online Store in U.S. Now Listing All iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Models as In Stock

 

[farewelwilliams]

and then a surprise 6S announcement in February.

 

[nfl46]

Dang, it took nearly 4 months. Now, lets hope some of these prices drop on Swappa. I need a new iPhone in March.

 

[HangmanSwingset]

Damn. I told myself I'd wait for a 6 Plus for this very moment.

...But I got bored of waiting, and spent those funds I had set aside on a 4790K. No regrets though. My i3 wasn't cutting it in my hackontosh.

 

[FieldingMellish]

They got production right in the 6 plus model by now. I swapped for an in-stock 128 gig plus model on holiday extended return policy and was pleased that it's in satisfactory condition right out of the box. Upcoming S models should be unconstrained because the form factor and production quality has been ironed out.

 

[MattMJB0188]

Now if only it didn't have 1GB of ram, a protruding camera, and a really terrible design, I'd be all over it.

On the side note, this is how inventory should have been from day 1. They had all summer to make tons of stock.

 

[Nordichund]

I'm holding off and hoping that a new iPhone will be announced in the next 8 months. I am very optimistic

 

[DaveTheRave]

Now if only it didn't have 1GB of ram, a protruding camera, and a really terrible design, I'd be all over it.

On the side note, this is how inventory should have been from day 1. They had all summer to make tons of stock.

I dislike the protruding camera and the horizontal bars on the back, too. But the phone looks so much better with the Apple leather case. Very tight fit and covers the ugly parts. I'm happy with it.

As for the inventory, what's annoying about Apple is their arbitrary annual release dates. They should release new hardware & software when it's ready and available. In some cases that might be sooner than a year, in some cases more than a year.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

On the side note, this is how inventory should have been from day 1. They had all summer to make tons of stock.

Two things:
1 - They spent all summer engineering it. You can't begin mass producing it until you've finalized the designs.
2 - They would have had far more leaks, much further in advance, if they had begun mass production sooner. They hate leaks - when a product is revealed on stage, they want it to be the first time people have seen it. They could announce them further in advance of going on sale, but that would be detrimental to sales of the current model (people stop buying it because they know when the new one is coming and what new features it'll have) and it harms sales of the next model (it allows hype to die down between the reveal and the actual on sale date.)

For perspective, how long did it take past iPhones to reach this point and how many sales did they ultimately make? Do the two numbers relate to each other so we can predict how many sales Apple made so far?

 

[FieldingMellish]

This phone, regardless opinion on aesthetics or content, was probably a bear to build. They really pushed the envelope with that rounded screen meeting a rounded body, so on and so forth. Design crew versus production, ways and means probably had it out over the hurdles involved with it.

 

[joeblow7777]

Now if only it didn't have 1GB of ram, a protruding camera, and a really terrible design, I'd be all over it.

On the side note, this is how inventory should have been from day 1. They had all summer to make tons of stock.

I hate Apple's lack of supply to meet demand as much as the next guy, but where would they have stored these tens of millions of devices? Remember, there was something like 10 million preorders in the first weekend alone. Also, God help them if a serious design flaw was found by users when it shipped. What do you do with those tens of millions of units you've already made? Not to mention leaks when you have warehouses of your yet-to-be-launched device sitting around weeks or months in advance. There's probably many other reasons I haven't even thought of why they wouldn't want to make a too an large an inventory in advance, even assuming that they are able to.

Your other complaints are of course highly subjective, especially the "really terrible design". I find that the previous generation of iPhones look rather blockish compared to the 6/6+, and of course the stripes on the back and protruding camera don't really matter when most people are going to use cases that mask those features anyway.

 

[ephemeralreason]

I agree with you about the subjectivity of design. I find the 5S model to be my favorite iphone design in terms of aesthetics, size and weight. I'll get a 6s of course but to my eyes it's as appealing but that's the nature of aesthetics.

 

[2457282]

No that supply is meeting demand, it will be interesting to see the sales figures at the end of this quarter. A previous article already shows that the 6/6+ is cutting into the Androids, as Apple continues to increase market share in almost every country. And that was with contrained inventory, so this seems like this quarter could really move the needle against competitors.

 

[FasterQuieter]

Hopefully this means they now have the capacity to start producing that bigger iPad.

 

[TallManNY]

Hmmm

Apple's Online Store in the U.S. is now listing all capacities and colors of iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus from all carriers as in stock, with the company now appearing to have now achieved supply and demand balance. The SIM-free iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are also showing an avaliability of 1 business day.

I'm not sure that just having your Online Store have full inventory is quite meeting supply and demand balance. It is a start. But does my local T-Mobile store have a complete selection? Can it ship in less than 24 hours? Is the phone launched in all of the countries where iPhone's normally sell? All these conditions have to be met before supply demand balance is really met.

 

[Sasparilla]

and then a surprise 6S announcement in February.

It's fun to think about, but we would have already been seeing components etc. since last 2 months or so for a February release.

Can't see them releasing the s till September, like normal.

 

[lolkthxbai]

Now if only it didn't have 1GB of ram, a protruding camera, and a really terrible design, I'd be all over it.

On the side note, this is how inventory should have been from day 1. They had all summer to make tons of stock.

There's more to mass producing a phone than feeding a drawing into a machine. A lot of planning and testing and dealing with yields.

 

[Tech198]

Well, this didn't take too long,, only a few months or so.

There is only one problem with that..... No one can wait.

 

[69650]

Same thing happened last year. Once you get passed new year the supply problems all magically disappear. Got my 5s in Jan last year and just got my 6 in Jan this year.

 

[thekeyring]

Now if only it didn't have 1GB of ram, a protruding camera, and a really terrible design, I'd be all over it.

On the side note, this is how inventory should have been from day 1. They had all summer to make tons of stock.

iOS is twice as memory efficient as Android. So if you're comparing it to an Android phone, half the ram in said Android phone for a fair comparison.

Next you'll be saying 'Now if it wasn't so slow, with its 1.4ghz processor with only two cores, I'd be all over the iPhone 6!'

 

[ttss6]

I greatly enjoyed my previous iPhones when I first got them (3GS, 4, 5) but that pales in comparison to how much I love my 6 Plus. Its the best phone yet.

 

[macs4nw]

Two things:
1 - They spent all summer engineering it. You can't begin mass producing it until you've finalized the designs.
2 - They would have had far more leaks, much further in advance, if they had begun mass production sooner. They hate leaks - when a product is revealed on stage, they want it to be the first time people have seen it. They could announce them further in advance of going on sale, but that would be detrimental to sales of the current model (people stop buying it because they know when the new one is coming and what new features it'll have) and it harms sales of the next model (it allows hype to die down between the reveal and the actual on sale date.)…..

Exactly. And furthermore, longer lead times between product announcements and the actual shipping date would give the competition more time to come up with their own variants of desirable new features, also not desirable in the cut-throat business consumer electronics has become.

And last but not least, manufacturers depend to some degree on the supply chain of components, over which they have virtually no control.

 

[DCJ001]

I dislike the protruding camera and the horizontal bars on the back, too. But the phone looks so much better with the Apple leather case. Very tight fit and covers the ugly parts. I'm happy with it.

As for the inventory, what's annoying about Apple is their arbitrary annual release dates. They should release new hardware & software when it's ready and available. In some cases that might be sooner than a year, in some cases more than a year.

Apparently, "arbitrary" means the opposite of what you think that it means.

The annual releases of new iPhone models are not at random, and have been/will be for specific reasons.

arbitrary |ˈärbiˌtrerē| adjective
based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system