To my surprise, all 12 of the Apple Stores in the Houston area are basically out of every model iPhone 16 Pro according to the Apple Store App. However the regular iPhone 16 in every color and storage is available at all of them. Is online inventory accurate and is the supply of iPhone 16 Pro that scarce? I would prefer to do my trade-in at the store.
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iPhone 16 Pro Are Apple Stores really out of stock of iPhone 16 Pro?
- Thread starter icemantx
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I don’t think this should be surprising. It’s like this every year on iPhone launch day at least that I can remember. Your best bet is keep trying different stores.
Not surprising at all, It's like this every year. I would recommend using this site:
iphonechecker.herokuapp.com
For me it's been pretty accurate for stock inventory. This is how I used to track down if the store near me has it in stock.
iPhone Inventory Checker - iPhone 16
How to Find the iPhone 16 in Stock? iPhone 16 inventory tracker. Apple inventory tracker. iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 16 inventory checker
For me it's been pretty accurate for stock inventory. This is how I used to track down if the store near me has it in stock.
🧐 Surprise? Really? This is par for the course for a few weeks after introduction. They're catch-as-catch-can.
Yes very accurate. The iPhone 16 models were built earlier on more assembly lines. The iPhone Pro and Pro Max models are rolling out hourly from the Foxconn assembly lines. This happens every year.
Dave
The fact that there are casually 12 Apple Stores in one city in the US has me go 🤯
Metro population of 7 million, gets 12 stores.
Where I am - metro population 0.5 million - crickets 😭
The 512gb and 1tb models are available at both local apple stores.
..either way, just wait a few weeks. It's not that big of a deal.
..either way, just wait a few weeks. It's not that big of a deal.
Anyone know the restock times/intervals for stores or is it random? I’ve checked the iPhone inventory site but they seem out the past few days for all 12 stores within 50 miles of me. Wouldn’t mind waiting but want to return my pro for a max and only have a week left.
From memory Pro phones are always sold out... base 16/16+ i see many still available for purchase in my stores [Perth and Garden City lol]
Folks who jump through hoops to get iPhones at launch (which is pre-order or wait on line at a store, so I'm not saying they are particular high hoops, but it ain't just a normal buying experience) are more likely to buy the Pro version. But Apple and Foxconn need to set up manufacturing lines for more than just launch, the manufacturing lines are set up to run for a year. They guess at the split between Pro and regular phones, but they can never keep up with Pro at launch.
It’s almost as if they should 86 the non-pro current series models and just have iPhone SE and iPhone Pro/Max.
No. The regular iPhone sells great. There is a rush by folks like us to get a Pro version. Then the normal people end up looking for a new phone, go into an Apple Store and pick the much cheaper, but still new, regular iPhone. Also Apple has decide to manufacture the regular iPhone for years and just keep it around with an increasingly cheaper price. And this year with RAM being the same and chip being an upgrade, this year's iPhone is very compelling now and has the power for a three-year sales cycle. It will sell a lot in those three years.
The SE, I think is truly just kind of its own thing and not just a cheap thing. I think right now it is a route to maintaining the Home button. In my family, this helps my elderly mom from having to learn the swipe gesturers while she stays on a reasonably capable and current iPhone. And it keeps touchID as a thing for folks who don't want to use FaceID. These may be niche needs, but in Apple world that niche is probably millions of iPhones a year. And Apple sells it new and cheap.
I see your point. I just think Apple’s SKUs are becoming too complicated……
iPhone: 9 Models
iPad: 4 Models
Apple Watch: 5 Models
Mac: 6 Models
AirPods: 3 Models
HomePod: 2 Models
That’s just high level…. If you take into account the different options available there are probably well over 500 SKUs available. There is no reason for this. It just confuses the average consumer and makes each product line a jumbled mess. Granted Apple clearly is not struggling and I’m just a guy laying on my floor watching Star Trek Deep Space Nine…. But if Apple would consolidate their offerings and make all features available across their models, I think that would benefit us more.
Fair that it is confusing. But go try to buy a Dell and get back to me. I'm a techy guy and I get confused as to which PC is right for me. This is a trillion dollar hardware company. And you just did a list of six things and basically covered most of what they sell (you left out the AppleTV, which is not a huge seller, but probably outsells the HomePods). iPhone alone probably brings in more profit for Apple than the profit earned by the entire US car manufacturing industry (I just made that up, but my gut says that it is the right ballpark). In that context, nine models ain't bad (with some of those models being just size: regular vs large). The upgrades are there in the products as a choice, but the upgrades are really for guys like you and me and we know what the upgrades do. Most people engage in only one upgrade decision on any particular item, which is storage size. So I think it isn't too much.
Oh I agree, I think all manufacturers are guilty of this. But specifically Apple, I still believe we would benefit from a smaller selection of SKUs. I didn’t mention the AppleTV as currently there is 1 model listed for sale (granted different variations of that one model).
Finally I looked, while the entire US auto industry doubles the amount of revenue (519B vs 200B) than that of iPhone. However in terms of gross profit, you’re right iPhone far exceeds the US Auto Industry (67B vs 17B)
(comparing iPhone 2023 and auto 2024)
Availability this year seemed unusually low for the Pro series during the first week after launch in the US. Maybe demand has been higher than expected or they changed the allocation mix to the 20 or so other countries vs the US.
In the past if you walked in to the stores when they opened in the morning or checked online during specific time windows there would be plenty of opportunities to snag them for same day pick up, especially for the smaller Pro phones. This year seemed like there were very few restocks during the first week.
In the past if you walked in to the stores when they opened in the morning or checked online during specific time windows there would be plenty of opportunities to snag them for same day pick up, especially for the smaller Pro phones. This year seemed like there were very few restocks during the first week.
Thanks for looking up my guess on car profits. Kind of supports that Apple can have a lot of different iPhones for sale.
One thing that might lower the SKUs for a bit would be if Apple increases the RAM and storage size of its base models, without increasing max numbers. I think that having all base models start at 16gb RAM and 512gb SSD would be good for customers (provides guidance for the consumer who does not guess correctly on their future needs). So if all laptops were basically 16gb or 32gb of RAM and those were basically the only two choices you had until you got into MBP with M4 Max chip (which would allow for 64gb of RAM) that would make choices a bit more simple.
That's actually a really good idea. Because honestly, having 8GB of RAM on a Mac and 128GB Storage on a Mac and iPhone is robbery and just plain greed.
Indeed. I started refreshing the iPhone inventory search more frequently and noticed random sizes/colors popping up once in a while in my area. The one I wanted finally popped up and I was able to order it for pickup.
Protip for anyone looking for one: add the phone you want to your cart ahead of time (I used the Apple Store app) so it's ready to checkout even if local pickup isn't available. When you see it pop up on here, hit checkout and try to select the corresponding store.
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