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iPhone 3G Shortage to Last a Month?

dacreativeguy said:
Or just wait a month and then walk in and out with no hassles.
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Yeah, but pre-launch people were saying "Just wait until Saturday, no lines", then Saturday you could hear "I'll wait until next weekend, no lines", and now we're at "Wait a month, and hope for phones and no lines".

A month from now we could still be talking about limited stock. Hard to say.
 
koala said:
Yeah, but pre-launch people were saying "Just wait until Saturday, no lines", then Saturday you could hear "I'll wait until next weekend, no lines", and now we're at "Wait a month, and hope for phones and no lines".

A month from now we could still be talking about limited stock. Hard to say.
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well the lines are really caused by the crappy in store activation, it apparently takes 20-30min to process each purchase, and you can mostly only purchase one item at time. last time around it was 2-3min/purchase with up to 4 iphones/customer. further, you were able to buy it online.

i think there was some 200k iphones sold in apple stores back then (the rest online or att shops), so assuming 250k iphones sold, on average 1.5 iphones/customer and 3min processing, it took 8,333 hours last time, or ~40 hours / apple store. assuming there were 5 clerks selling them in each store all the time in each store, 8 hours to process the queues. (obviously this 8 hours of service was spread over 3 day period, so there was queues only at the very early phase).

this time, assuming 250k of the 1m iphones sold were sold in the apple store with 30min process time and close to 1 iphone / customer -> 125h, each store open 16h / day, almost 8 days to process the queues, all the time, no breaks.

to make the matter worse apple seems to have issues in managing the logistics, there's no shortage of iphones were i live, but they are not where the customers are! so you go to a store and tell you want one, and then they call you the next day or the day after that when they have received the phone from another location with stock... i'd expect apple to have this issue worldwide; in some countries there's excess stock and in other there might be shortages.
 
All the 'shortage' did was give me more time to play with v2.0 on my gen 1 phone. And read reports on the new hardware. I'd like a GPS chip, and occasionally use 3g, but mostly I cared about better battery life, and I don't think the 3G delivers. I no longer have an urge to buy a 3G.

Last year I purchased my iPhone in the evening, on day 1, without a line. This year people were still lined up on Saturday. I stayed away. Our store had some this morning(Columbus, OH), and I didn't even care. Thanks to all those that stood in line, and kept me from even trying. Saved me $300 + 15/month. I'll wait for Gen 3 :)
 
I think the analyst are saying that they will not be available on demand for two to four weeks. So you can still order it now (@ AT&T as example), but they are on a short back order. So you should have no problems getting replacement phones, etc, you may just need to wait a few extra days.

Glad I got mine on launch day, very happy.
 
Walked by the Flagship store @ 59th & 5th in NYC today over lunch (~3pm). The line had to have been a good 300 deep, in the 90 degree heat and direct sun. I hung about for a bit and counted the rate at which they were taking people into the store -- my completely wild @ss guess is about 1 person/1.5 minutes. That's an awful long wait in this kind of weather!

A bit crazy to me, but to each their own, I guess. . . I mean, I want one, too, but I can wait a few weeks if need be.

On the bright side, I talked to a couple of people at the back of the line (who were a good couple of hours from purchasing their phones still), and they said the Apple reps handing out water and doing crowd control had assured them there would still be stock when they got to the front of the line. So the flagship store is currently getting enough stock to sell though to at least 5-6pm every day.

I guess for those of you who really want one now, you can come up here to NYC and fry like an egg on the pavement at 59th and 5th for a couple of hours if you really want to. . . :rolleyes:
 
That would be me...

newyorksole said:
I have been trying all week to get a 16GB Black and a Speck PixelSkin Case in black... of course both are always out of stock. I was even settling for 8GB Black, but of course stores only have the white phone.. I don't think I'll ever win.

Wish I was in an area where I could just walk in and get it and be out within half an hour.
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After no luck last Saturday morning first thing at my local AT&T and the late night 1:00 jaunt to the flagship 5th Avenue store (with 400 people lined up mind you) I changed the decision after leaving the AT&T and decided to drive to a different mall in NJ.

Less than 20 people ahead of me. I get in the store and my hands on the phone in less than 30 minutes. I can't tell you how excited I was but I'm sure everyone else did.

Some folks are going to try and hit that store in the Short Hills Mall early tomorrow. From what I hear they had some in today and they have fared better overall than some of the other northern NJ locations.
 
sjo said:
well the lines are really caused by the crappy in store activation, it apparently takes 20-30min to process each purchase, and you can mostly only purchase one item at time. last time around it was 2-3min/purchase with up to 4 iphones/customer. further, you were able to buy it online.

i think there was some 200k iphones sold in apple stores back then (the rest online or att shops), so assuming 250k iphones sold, on average 1.5 iphones/customer and 3min processing, it took 8,333 hours last time, or ~40 hours / apple store. assuming there were 5 clerks selling them in each store all the time in each store, 8 hours to process the queues. (obviously this 8 hours of service was spread over 3 day period, so there was queues only at the very early phase).

this time, assuming 250k of the 1m iphones sold were sold in the apple store with 30min process time and close to 1 iphone / customer -> 125h, each store open 16h / day, almost 8 days to process the queues, all the time, no breaks.

to make the matter worse apple seems to have issues in managing the logistics, there's no shortage of iphones were i live, but they are not where the customers are! so you go to a store and tell you want one, and then they call you the next day or the day after that when they have received the phone from another location with stock... i'd expect apple to have this issue worldwide; in some countries there's excess stock and in other there might be shortages.
Click to expand...

Nice analysis. I was thinking along the same lines. I was wondering could they sell 10 million phones if they even had them? If it is taking them this long to process people, there might not be enough time to sell 10 million phones. I was going to do a similar analysis when I was waiting on a line at the 14th street store last saturday but now work is getting in the way.:(

I am in NY and cannot justify standing for 4 hours on a line (nor do I really have the time) for a phone. I will try my local at&t store to order one and hope are able to take my order (they weren't able on wednesday). Otherwise I will wait.
I did
 
Again - Poor reporting. How do they not know the fact that stores get iPhones in DAILY and people are there waiting for shipments - they sell out and have nothing to report for the "check availability" site.

Phones are being stocked and sold daily despite what the site says. Hundreds in line each day.
 
Got mine!

austinmm6 said:
I ordered a white 3g on the 14th from an AT&T store in Huntsville, AL. I picked it up this morning. I was expecting it to take much longer than that.:)
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Same situation for me. I had to buy from AT&T because of my existing plan has a company discount. I stopped by the AT&T store at my local mall (Burlington, MA) on Saturday, and they were completely out.

I went again Tuesday morning, and was advised that it was best to order one, rather than wait for new stock to arrive. The rep I spoke to felt that phones that were supposed to go to stores for restocking were instead being diverted for customer orders. I took her advice, and was told it could take up to 21 days.

Since Tuesday, I've tried to check my order status on AT&T's website & 866 number, but the systems could never find my order. This morning the website finally found my order—and said that it had just shipped at midnight! I checked FedEx tracking, and it was already out for delivery to the store.

So, I stopped by on the way home from work and picked up my 16GB white iPhone (I wanted white all along).

Yipee!
 
Not in NZ I guess

I ordered an 8GB one online through vodafone on Thursday and its on the way now, apparently form Singapore :D

Now my only worry is if 8GB is enough for Apps, email and content :(
:apple:
 
berkleeboy210 said:
I am so glad I wasn't a woose last Friday and didn't go home and sleep after a 5-6 hour plane ride back home to Boston. I literally had the cab driver take me to the Apple store from the Airport. :) and waited 4hrs in line on Friday Afternoon.
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I worked the overnight shift, got out at 10:30 am friday and shot right over to the store. I waited in line for 3 hours, then had to order it. I got it Wed.:D
 
There was much talk about the fact that it probably won't sell out. Last year nobody had a problem getting one. I had a hard time believing that. They were more than double the price last year!!! With the price drop, of course they are going to sell out!!
 
GEE Wally, seems like Apple is playing games like Nintendo? Yep Beav, Apple sure is!


Such BS, I am sooooo sure Apple couldnt have made enough Iphones to support the demand... yeah right..


Drink that Kool Aid.. umm it tastes GOOD.
 
lorinserbenz said:
GEE Wally, seems like Apple is playing games like Nintendo? Yep Beav, Apple sure is!

Such BS, I am sooooo sure Apple couldnt have made enough Iphones to support the demand... yeah right..

Drink that Kool Aid.. umm it tastes GOOD.
Click to expand...
Not so sure about that..

All the O2 stores around here just got their first batch in since originally running out shortly after launch.. I got a 16GB one (i was on holiday so missed the launch, doh!).. Point is, if it's similar to this in all of the countries the iphone is on sale.. This is really big.

I was at the front of the local O2 queue here, in the 35 mins i was there (20 because i arrived early, 15mins for activation) the whole shop had filled up with people after iphones. I know the shop I was in was only sent twelve 16GB ones.. But there are at least 6 shops in this city who were likely sent the same amounts.. They are definitely selling a looot of them, they just have the entire world to spread them across now.
 
Hopefully, all this news coverage about the iPhone 3G shortages, long lines, etc will make less people attempt to go to the stores in search for the phone. (thinking that there is no hope)

Thus making it easier for ME to get one. :D
 
My experience from the Netherlands:
We got about 7000 for the whole country.
Flagship T-Mobile shop in Rotterdam tot 500, other outlets 12 per store, Belcompany 10, Mediamarkt 8 and Apple premium reseller 2.
Luckily I was waiting from 00:00 till 09:30 so I was first line and got the black 16GB model. Believe me Americans, you got it way better with that 250.000!!!!

Written from my iPhone 3G;)
 
Well, I am definitely one of those who underestimated the popularity. Even though I knew a bunch of friends who were finally going to hop on the iPhone bandwagon, I didn't extrapolate and predict this initial frenzy.

I think it's because the media didn't talk about this launch as much as they did when the iPhone first came out.

I was thinking I could waltz in a few hours after the initial line died down, like I did last year. WRONG!

But at least I have my first-gen iPhone to tide me over for the next month. :)

If the lines last longer than that... then I will queue up, myself.
 
LOL. I guess I got lucky. I was shopping for my wifes birthday present yesterday at the mall and happend to wonder into apple. I was trying to decide if the 3g was worth upgrading from my 1 gen Iphone. It turns out they had a bunch in stock and I picked up 2 with no waiting and that is a shocker out here in long island.
 
I was actually first in line today around noon to get an iPhone 3G. And I was first in line entirely by chance, I wasn't waiting around for hours or anything like that.

Of course, I wasn't able to get one, because my account just happened to have some sort of stupid business discount or something. So now I have to get it at my local AT&T store. Although, they told me they are expecting a large shipment sometime next week.
 
Quillz said:
I was actually first in line today around noon to get an iPhone 3G. And I was first in line entirely by chance, I wasn't waiting around for hours or anything like that.

Of course, I wasn't able to get one, because my account just happened to have some sort of stupid business discount or something. So now I have to get it at my local AT&T store. Although, they told me they are expecting a large shipment sometime next week.
Click to expand...

Just call customer service and they can remove the discount. I did it while I was in line at Apple, it took less than a minute. I just had to visit an AT&T store afterwards to get it put back on.
 
I would be surprised if someone is still unable to get an iPhone in another week if they are located in or around any major city

I am sure people living around just 1-2 stores may still see shortages but around here there are tons of AT&T stores and every day a few have some iPhones and in a week I suspect more will have a few in stock
 
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