iPhone 5s Shipping Estimates Slip to October

[barondebxl]

yes!

Placed an order for a 16 gig gold friday at 3:02 am with 1-3 day shipping. Since then the status of my order was at "processing items" but changed to "preparing for shipment" today. I'm very excited! Delivery estimation was for between sept 30-oct 2 but i may receive it sometime this week!

 

[WestonHarvey1]

T-Mobile customers pay full retail price or wait.

 

[rdlink]

Interesting point.
I don't fully understand the second part though, could you elaborate?
I.e. are you meaning that you could buy the newest iPhone every 2 years for the same price as buying last year's model every 2 years?

Gazelle is giving me more for my iPhone 5 than I paid for my 5S.

 

[Dominicanyor]

I think what apple was doing was just teasing people to see how long will the gold iPhone will sale. The plan was to sent just enough iPhones to so many store to teas folks period. Not Cool apple!!!

 

[Spontida]

I guess I should be thanking the lord I walked into an Apple Store at 5pm launch day, and they had the exact color, and exact size I wanted.

-_-

 

[timhuerta]

iPhone 5 - an alternative strategy

I have to say that I think people are going about this all wrong. I didn't try to get it in person day 1 because I knew my time was more valuable than standing in line. I always keep my phone in a mophie case, so color meant nothing to me - and having a 16 GB iphone 4s that never used more than 10 GB, I knew that bigger wasn't better just bigger - so - Grey 16 GB iphone for ATT was my plan.

Called Best Buy in a city 30 minutes away from Columbus. Heath to be specific. All the Columbus stores were sold out as were the Apple store. I confirmed that on my drive out, and confirmed that they had plenty of stock. Walked in, the purchase took about 15 minutes.

The point is that the law of supply and demand is a macro-level phenomenon. The important point is that everyone got something, so it was about choosing to drive for 30 minutes (in my case) rather than spending that time hanging around. I would suggest, if you want the phone, that you:

Also, two years ago I purchased it online. Then I found out that the AT&T store had plenty on hand - but I couldn't cancel my order. So ordering took longer for me than waiting. Then again, I wasn't in a big market there either.

1. Decide whether you are willing to wait for the color you want
2. Markets matter. If you are in a smaller market or can get to a retailer in a po-dunk town, you likely can get what you want.
3. Also, if your phone is free and clear, get them to unlock it before you buy a new phone. Its easier to do while its your phone than when its just lying around.

I'll add that you might consider going during the week. The weekend is likely to be a little more difficult as people are free to hang out and wait for the stores to process their incoming stock.

The AT&T store, Best Buy and Apple store in Columbus seemed pretty positive about getting stock to meet demand relatively quickly and heath had 10+ Verizon 5c just sitting around waiting for a home.

Good luck!

 

[Tiger8]

It's replacing the 5. All those people who want $99 phones will get them eventually, and apple will make a higher profit than they would have from the 5. Even MORE record profits.

Thank you! The need was to deepen apple pockets, minimal design effort = savings for apple

 

[mrxak]

Unless they sold, I don't know, 10 million iPhone 5S's this weekend (which we will presumably find out on Monday), Apple really should've anticipated demand. It seems silly to me to say that they would intentionally limit supply, but it also seems farfetched that they couldn't see this coming.

Every year demand exceeds everyone's expectations, despite Apple making more devices every year in anticipation. It's hard to predict a number that is by its very nature, unpredictable. Also remember that Apple and Tim Cook in particular is religiously anti-warehouse. Products sitting in boxes or on shelves are losing value every day. It's in Apple's culture to be conservative, even when they make more and more devices to anticipate demand. It saves them money to simply ramp up production the week after release to fill the extra orders. It's not some marketing gimmick, it's just good business, and for the most part I expect they do their best to get web orders shipped out within a week of order, while keeping just enough product sent out each day to Apple Stores and their retail partners to serve as much foot traffic as possible. They may have to play a bit of catch up if their pre-release estimates are off significantly, but let's face it, anyone who really wanted a new iPhone this week has got one or is getting one. In that sense Apple met demand just fine. Anyone who waited to order is going to have to wait a bit longer and it's their own fault. They might still get lucky at a retail location though, and I don't think they'll be waiting all that long unless they wait to order next week.

 

[garylapointe]

Interesting point.
I don't fully understand the second part though, could you elaborate?
I.e. are you meaning that you could buy the newest iPhone every 2 years for the same price as buying last year's model every 2 years?

I've got the 4s which I bought at it's release 2 years ago. I got a quote from Gazelle a few weeks ago for $210 for them to buy 16GB iPhone 4s (quote is good until Oct. 15) so picking up the new phone at release and not waiting actually gets me $10 (not counting tax and any carrier activation fees).

Since getting my first iPhone (the 3GS) the Gazelle payment has been right around $200 for two year old iPhones. They're actually (as of a minute ago) still doing $180 for AT&T iPhone 4s 16GB, I'm surprised it's still that high.

So people who wait and get it later are losing money on the buy back payment. Plus, the carrier is getting "extra" money from them each month for no reason (if the iPhone is $649 unsubsidized, then $19 of your bill each month goes to pay for your phone, after 24 months, you're throwing that $19 away).

Some people say "I don't need a new one every 2 year, I can wait three years". But they'll still be paying the $19 a month (their carrier loves them!) and their phone will worth $100 less (and for that least year, the battery probably didn't hold a charge as well and the phone ran slower than a newer one would have).

If you buy AppleCare+, you can't even get it for a 3rd year (so if it breaks it's not worth much at all); but I don't really want to turn this into an AppleCare discussion...

It's expensive to just give your old iPhone to someone (it'll pay for the new one) and it makes no sense for a friend to buy it from you for $200 when they could just get a new iPhone for the same amount.

Buyback isn't as good for the larger models (32GB / 64GB) so you might want to explore other options (like eBay).

Gary

 

[WMD]

Search twitter for "love iphone 5c". You'll get a feel for who is buying it.

I decided to do this. Sure enough, what followed was a long list of teenage girls. I was hoping the population at large was not quite that predictable, but alas. You win, sir.

 

[cire]

Thank you! The need was to deepen apple pockets, minimal design effort = savings for apple

Anyone notice that as soon as they got rid of the down vote, this became a bash Apple site? Just saying.

 

[echo44]

Apple does this every year. They create artificial demand to have people talking about
The phone and make the news. The stores only have space grey, as if that was an accident. They know they sell the least so supply those first to sell to people out of impulse and being impatient.

Some stores only have 10-20 gold iPhones? A billion dollar company can't make enough supply? Give me a break.
It's getting old, just make enough of what people want.

Go google chip yield and silicon fabrication. Name any other company that needs to meet the demand of cutting edge first production chip technology in the amounts apple's iPhone debut weekend demands! Study in your business class product deadlines and how important release dates are. Apple doesn't have the resources at this time to fabricate their own chips. They depend on other companies such as samsung to produce their chips.
If you understood the business you would understand how small the window has to be to stay competitive in this business . Do you realize it can take up to 8 weeks to fabricate a chip!!! Imagine how difficult it is to bring a product such as the iphone to market. Not only do you have to time chip production with manufacturing time tables. You also have software deadlines. My guess is Apple is running on unbelievable demanding time deadlines. Just look at when iOS 7 made its debut as a developer preview and how quick it is actually released. My guess is if Apple were to wait until they had enough stock to meet demand through out the world they would sacrifice a significant amount of sales to other manufactures as people tend to be very impatient. Just look at these boards as proof.

I could also tell you as a business customer who deals directly with Apple, their goal is to get as much
product into customers hands as fast as possible. Your statement that Apple Artificially inflates demand couldn't be farther from the truth!! Just google "demand Apple puts on its suppliers" They are brutal in trying to secure as much product as possible such as DRAM etc.

You want more proof your completely wrong? Go research the number of iPhones sold on launch weekend since its debut. It is exponentially increasing. Very simple Apple is increasing the number of phones every year trying to meet demand. If they were really trying to limit demand wouldn't they be releasing the same amount or fewer units? It couldn't be any more obvious; every year the demand is increasing and Apple and its manufacturing partners can not keep up with initial demand. If you also look at Asymco site they analyze the amount Apple spends on increasing manufacturing capabilities. IN the last few years the amount has been doubling. This is because they actually buy the equipment that companies such as Foxconn use to manufacture the iPhone

 

[barondebxl]

Go google chip yield and silicon fabrication. Name any other company that needs to meet the demand of cutting edge first production chip technology in the amounts apple's iPhone debut weekend demands! Study in your business class product deadlines and how important release dates are. Apple doesn't have the resources at this time to fabricate their own chips. They depend on other companies such as samsung to produce their chips.
If you understood the business you would understand how small the window has to be to stay competitive in this business . Do you realize it can take up to 8 weeks to fabricate a chip!!! Imagine how difficult it is to bring a product such as the iphone to market. Not only do you have to time chip production with manufacturing time tables. You also have software deadlines. My guess is Apple is running on unbelievable demanding time deadlines. Just look at when iOS 7 made its debut as a developer preview and how quick it is actually released. My guess is if Apple were to wait until they had enough stock to meet demand through out the world they would sacrifice a significant amount of sales to other manufactures as people tend to be very impatient. Just look at these boards as proof.

I could also tell you as a business customer who deals directly with Apple, their goal is to get as much
product into customers hands as fast as possible.

Good point.

 

[TimCook]

Unless you want the color phone in polycarbonate...

Anyone ever think outside of their own little mindset? You know, there are people who prefer the colorful phone...

Hahahaha, good one
Paying extra money over the iPhone 5 to get a thicker, heavier phone is an ineffective way of spending money. If you want the new colours then sure, the choice is yours - I simply wouldn't recommend doing so because you are spending money so ineffectively (but I guess this is the mindless consumer world we live in)

Also, you should perhaps read some of the other comments about the cost of upgrading every few years

 

[barondebxl]

Honestly, i personally would have preferred an 5s with the polycarbonate of the 5c. Yes i said it!

 

[zappa2001]

Just tonight my order changed to "Preparing for shipment"!! I bought the 64GB gold iphone 5s.

I hope I get it this week. I opened up the Apple store app about a minute to 2am (I'm in the Midwest) and it loaded up and I raced to order the gold iphone.

I remember bloggers and websites all saying gold was for the Eastern markets, blah blah blah. Everybody I knew was talking about and wanted that color.

 

[erinh]

FWIW...

I woke up at around 4am (only about 30 minutes earlier than I usually wake up to head in to work) and logged on to my account on att. My wife and I were due for an upgrade and we had been waiting the new iphone 5s out. We hoped it would arrive before our vacation so we could take advantage of the newer camera but didn't necessarily have expectations they would. Didn't want to deal with crowds and I didn't want to have to leave work to deal with something I could take care of online. Being the first wasn't priority. Just getting one was good enough.

I ordered (2) 64gb space gray models. When I made the purchase the shipping date showed 7-14 days. I got an email the next day that said 7-28 days. Bummer.

Well, today I just got a set of emails stating ours would be here on Monday.

So, anyone who may have ordered the same models from ATT near that time might be reasonable to expect similar delivery.

We're pretty excited. Like I said, we didn't expect to receive them quickly. But the fact that we are, and it's before our vacation is good news to us.

 

[o9ski]

can those who got a 5S already (I see there are several in this thread) please comment on the touch ID performance. Any noticeable lag? how accurate is it?

Got mine yesterday after lunch. Walked into a small just recently opened ATT store and got it.

Touch ID does really work. Simple and amazing.
Never failed.
I registered four of my fingers (thumb and index on both hands) and one of my wife's ( just in case).
You simply place a finger on a home button for about a second and it unlocks the phone.
No other fingers or anyone of my family members or friends I asked to could unlock it.
I can't imagine typing those pins again.
Apple nailed this one.

 

[imageWIS]

Apple does this every year. They create artificial demand to have people talking about
The phone and make the news. The stores only have space grey, as if that was an accident. They know they sell the least so supply those first to sell to people out of impulse and being impatient.

Some stores only have 10-20 gold iPhones? A billion dollar company can't make enough supply? Give me a break.
It's getting old, just make enough of what people want.

Facepalm.

A) Apple has once before tried a gold product and it didn't do well, so they were being cautious this time around

B) There was an issue with producing the fingerprint sensor, so they made less 5s than originally estimate. PLus, it's not like they are making a few thousand phones, we are talking about millions of phones.

C) You would know about A + B if you had bothered to read Macrumors this past week. Instead of ignorantly complaining.

 

[barondebxl]

Got mine yesterday after lunch. Walked into a small just recently opened ATT store and got it.

Touch ID does really work. Simple and amazing.
Never failed.
I registered four of my fingers (thumb and index on both hands) and one of my wife's ( just in case).
You simply place a finger on a home button for about a second and it unlocks the phone.
No other fingers or anyone of my family members or friends I asked to could unlock it.
I can't imagine typing those pins again.
Apple nailed this one.

Nice! Was also thinking of doing the same thing ( both thumbs and index fingers). Ill probably ad a pinky as well for when i eat sometimes and get messy lol.

 

[o9ski]

The only time I had to hold my thumb for a fraction longer was while eating a greasy pretzel at a mall. Probably has to do with the metal ring sensor detecting ones finger. Fat may act and an insulator.
Hesitated but still worked.

 

[Cndnmax]

I made the mistake of believing targets "reservations", looks like apple cut target out of the initial shipments because none of the stores around me received any inventory. I should of went with my gut and taken the 1-3 day shipping online.

 

[phpmaven]

Agreed. I bought my daughter an iPhone 5 C Yellow Version today at Walmart and Walmart is sold out of the five C's he said that they had over 300 of them in stock so flop I think not. He told me they were selling like hotcakes. I got the last one they had.

Once these phones get out into the wild and kids see their friends with them, they are going to really sell like crazy.

----------

I'm getting the 5C because I really need a new phone badly and I know its gonna be hard to get hands on 5S till November

If you live near an Apple store you can get one without too much problem. They get shipments every day.

 

[sunspot42]

Uh, wrong

I really think Apple just screwed this thing up by releasing the 5C. They focused on a lower level tier instead of their top tier, which as we can see now, is severely constrained.

In the past, Apple has continued selling the prior year's model when releasing an upgraded model, and that's one of the reasons why they've always had so much trouble meeting demand for the new model - it uses similar/identical manufacturing lines as the new model. That's a real problem with the iPhone 5, as it's comparatively difficult to manufacture - you can only churn out milled aluminium parts so fast.

This year Apple wisely created a new design to sell as "last year's iPhone", the 5c. It can be manufactured using simpler parts in a less-involved process. By switching the 5c away from the design of the 5, they actually made more manufacturing capacity available for the 5s.

If they hadn't done that, we'd be looking at even worse delays for the 5s, and the 5c would start seeing delays as well.

 

[joeblow7777]

Facepalm.

A) Apple has once before tried a gold product and it didn't do well, so they were being cautious this time around

B) There was an issue with producing the fingerprint sensor, so they made less 5s than originally estimate. PLus, it's not like they are making a few thousand phones, we are talking about millions of phones.

C) You would know about A + B if you had bothered to read Macrumors this past week. Instead of ignorantly complaining.

I don't care about waiting to get my phone, so I'm definitely not whining, but every year there's a convenient excuse for the short supply. Last year or maybe the year before I think there was something about a shortage of parts for the retina displays.

Apple knows just what they're doing. There's no reason why they couldn't have launched this or previous models a few weeks later in order to ensure that they could meet demand, but demand being greater than the supply just creates even more demand. Every company that can get away with this does it.