To clarify this, as I know someone who is very well "in the know" at ATT and not just some store employee, the meanings are as such:
"Preparing to ship" or "in progress" (FOR A NORMAL ORDER) means that you have placed the order and it is process of being pulled from inventory and shipped out.
"Preparing to ship" or "in progress" (FOR A PREORDER EVENT) means you have submitted your order, it's been authorized/pre-authorized and now is sitting in a queue.
"Back ordered" (FOR A NORMAL ORDER) means the item is out of stock but you have been assigned the item from an incoming supply of the item.
"Back ordered" (FOR A PREORDER EVENT) means very much the same thing as above and YES it means your item will ship soon. You have now moved from that limbo status after initially placing your order, to now being assigned to an actual delivery/supply of devices. For pre-orders, that typically means when a fresh supply of devices lands in distribution center and now they have some "backorder inventory". So your order is assigned to be picked from that inventory. It then rapidly ships out. The reason this is different than a normal "back order" status which is assigned right away is that pre-order events are always variable and inventory/supply levels will not be known at time of order. They are driven after the preorder starts. So this is how the "back order" works for preorder events.
It makes perfect sense.
