How could they have sold out?

B

Bag302

macrumors regular
Reports today say that more than one million iphones have been preordered, exceeding initial supply.

We saw reports last months saying that Apple was producing 150,000 units daily. Simple math says they would meet demand in less than 10 production days.

What gives?
 
I'm guessing the majority of the phones sold were of the 16GB capacity, and there were a lot of 32's and 64's left?
 
Slow distribution? They are made in China and have to be shipped all over the world, there can be customs delays etc so it's not as simple as just making the things.
 
Bag302 said:
Reports today say that more than one million iphones have been preordered, exceeding initial supply.

We saw reports last months saying that Apple was producing 150,000 units daily. Simple math says they would meet demand in less than 10 production days.

What gives?
Click to expand...

What gives is that you shouldn't listen to "reports"... :rolleyes:
 
They probably reserved a lot of the initial production for in-store distribution for mere mortals (not the quick-on-the-draw pre-orderers).
 
When is the last time you made 1million of anything? It takes time. Henry ford could never imagine the scale of manufacturing we have today.
 
No doubt they have a lot held back for stocking stores on the day of release so the 1 million was probably the initial allocation for preorders.
 
Bag302 said:
Reports today say that more than one million iphones have been preordered, exceeding initial supply.

We saw reports last months saying that Apple was producing 150,000 units daily. Simple math says they would meet demand in less than 10 production days.

What gives?
Click to expand...

They "Sold Out" of phones to be delivered by the 14th. Assuming that the 150K/day production is accurate, that gives them 7-8 days of production to meet the delivery deadline (since release of iOS5 GM). Some of those phones are going to all the Apple, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Best Buy, Radio Shack, etc. stores (not to mention all the retailers outside the USA).

It's simple math! :D
 
I wonder what formulas they use to decide how many of each carrier to make and who to ship them to. I am guessing there is a lot of math and historical data factoring into this, plus a healthy dose of "I like you more than I like them"...
 
I hate to keep saying it, but...

Remember when people were saying the 4s was disappointing and would flop? Where are those people now?
 
ldaustin said:
No doubt they have a lot held back for stocking stores on the day of release so the 1 million was probably the initial allocation for preorders.
Click to expand...

That's the most logical; allocate a certain quantity for preorders for the 14 Oct launch, allocate additional quantity for in-store launch-day supplies. Miss the first group and you're now looking at allocations from ongoing production quantities.

Plus, the same production lines (presumably) will be supplying phones for the Oct 28th launch in 22 additional countries.

With over 1M preorders sold, it will be interesting to see how 4S sales compare to iphone 4 sales, which I believe topped 1.7M units in the three days after launch.
 
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ZBoater said:
I wonder what formulas they use to decide how many of each carrier to make and who to ship them to. I am guessing there is a lot of math and historical data factoring into this, plus a healthy dose of "I like you more than I like them"...
Click to expand...

I'm fascinated by the business/manufacturing end of this. I would guess that this phone's sales exceeded Apple's initial projcetions.

I would also guess that they wouldn't "overproduce" the initial run. That way Apple can be reactive to demand and/or any production problems that may crop up.
 
Patriot24 said:
Remember when people were saying the 4s was disappointing and would flop? Where are those people now?
Click to expand...

A few hundred thousand pre-orders don't really tell you anything about the success. When the first quarterly numbers come out that will be the first indication of the success of the 4S. The analysts are predicting Apple will sell over 100 million of them in the next year which is a pretty lofty goal for a mild refresh.
 
It is really unbelievable to me that the 4S has almost doubled the initial sales of the iphone 4. 1 MILLION 4S vs 600,000 iP4. What a testament to Apple and SJ. They could have easily followed everyone else and re-desinged the phone and gave it a bigger screen, etc. but decided instead to give the 4 a heavy spec bump. Before the release, I was reading article after article saying how disappointed everyone was with the 4S. People everywhere were furious and a lot were jumping ship for Android and 4"+ AMOLED screens. And I'll be honest, when all the rumors were flying about an iPhone 5, I was almost positive that we were getting a redesigned iphone 5. And I said, if all we got was a spec bumped 4, I was going to keep my 4 w/ iOS 5 and wait until next year. Well guess what? My 4 is gone and I'm constantly checking the order status of my 4S. It's crazy!

I LOVE my Apple products and would never own another PC, but Apple is it's own ecosystem. Once you go Apple, it is VERY hard to go back to anything else. Apple is brillant when it comes to "locking" people up for the long haul.

I am just totally astounded that the 4S smashed sales records. I only wish SJ was around to see and appreciate it.
 
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ZBoater said:
I wonder what formulas they use to decide how many of each carrier to make and who to ship them to. I am guessing there is a lot of math and historical data factoring into this, plus a healthy dose of "I like you more than I like them"...
Click to expand...

There's no formula, all iPhone 4S' are created equally (storage aside) - deciding which carrier they work on is all done through iTunes on the software side.
 
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