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Is this the WORST launch by Apple?

S

sleepyking

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 5, 2012
475
66
Now that plenty of Apple stores and carrier stores are open or about to open, it's widely reported that they have very limited supply overall, and in some cases absolutely no supply of color/size combinations.

Not to mention no pre-orders, confusing shipping/delivery estimates, and confusing verbiage on the unlocked phones for those who wanted to order online. Plus the App you couldn't even select T-Mobile but you can on the site.

What gives??? Why even set today as the release date if Apple can't meet a good amount of the demand?
 
As someone still sitting in line in LA, absolutely yes. It makes no sense why they didn't do preorders this ear other than the unfortunate motive of wanting more press attention for big lines and sold out devices.

Stock is insanely low on anything but space gray, also. The only worse delivery by apple was probably how long the white 4 was delayed.
 
I think this tops the iPad 2 / 2012 iMac launch. Would make sense to delay the short colors and release the gray only, like the iPhone 4
 
I would have to agree this by far is the worst launch. I waited in line starting at 3am at my local AT&T store for them to tell me at 7:30am that they only have Space grey for the 5S. I then made my way to my local Apple store to get the exact same result. I understand limiting supply to create the illusion of demand but this is a complete other ball game. Reading reports of stores getting like 1 or 2 gold phones and the rest space grey. It shouldn't have been released this early. They should gathered supply before releasing like this. I've been an apple customer for over 8 years but this is the first time I am very disappointed.
 
fs454 said:
As someone still sitting in line in LA, absolutely yes. It makes no sense why they didn't do preorders this ear other than the unfortunate motive of wanting more press attention for big lines and sold out devices.

Stock is insanely low on anything but space gray, also. The only worse delivery by apple was probably how long the white 4 was delayed.
Click to expand...

I think what they did wrong this year was try and meet to many markets at once. I don't think they wanted to artificially increase demand by reducing supply.... instead, I believe they spread themselves too thin. Atleast you are in the States, which appears to have got the best supply. Up here in Canada our online store was showing 7-10 days (or Oct. for gold) from the milisecond it opened.
 
I just think it would be common courtesy for them to let everyone know well before 8 AM that that will only have 1 color.
 
IMO, the worst launch was either the 3G or 3Gs, when the activation servers failed for hours. IMO having phones to sell, but being unable to sell them because of some stupid back-end glitch, is worse than not having enough phones in the first place.

As for why they're launching with a limited supply now? My guess is that because their fiscal year ends next Saturday (the 28th), they wanted as many iPhone sales in this quarter/year as they could possibly get.
 
i would say yes. They should have just told people they were only gonna have gold. I waited an hour only to find out that everything was 16gb black.
 
Haven't heard of stock being this bad before, so I'll say yes. I don't think it's a coincidence that this is the first time that there have been no preorders and we're hearing of all the shortages/unavailable combinations. Apple knew about this, so why did they not change the policy for this occasion and it be max 1 phone per customer until more are available?
 
I just dont understand why they made so much of one color and so little of the others. did they really think the demand for space grey would be so much larger than the other colors? i cant think of any reason that would prevent them from making as many silver and gold models, so it must have been a conscious choice. Does anyone have any insight as to why they chose to do this? it seems like many people left stores without phones today because they didnt carry the color they wanted, that means that apple may end up selling less phones today than they would have if they had stocked more silver and gold. Im willing to bet there will be space grey models left unsold at the end of the day at many stores.
 
Yes. Bad enough queuing and they only have one capacity and colour left with half the line served, but 7-10 business days within the first half hour of ordering?
I don't remember it being this bad before.
 
marddin said:
I would have to agree this by far is the worst launch. I waited in line starting at 3am at my local AT&T store for them to tell me at 7:30am that they only have Space grey for the 5S. I then made my way to my local Apple store to get the exact same result. I understand limiting supply to create the illusion of demand but this is a complete other ball game. Reading reports of stores getting like 1 or 2 gold phones and the rest space grey. It shouldn't have been released this early. They should gathered supply before releasing like this. I've been an apple customer for over 8 years but this is the first time I am very disappointed.
Click to expand...

So it is Apple's fault that AT&T didn't let you know they only had Space Gray?
 
billycuth said:
I just think it would be common courtesy for them to let everyone know well before 8 AM that that will only have 1 color.
Click to expand...

I agree with this completely. It's just mind boggling to release a product in short supply. I know many of us anticipated the next iPhone but I would've been fine waiting till October so they can have a proper release where tons of people aren't scrambling and wasting hours to be disappointed.

I thought last year would've been bad due to the 5 being a new design/size, but it was much better than this years release. I mean at least we were able to pre-order and have it delivered on launch date for crying out loud.
 
What do you mean selection of colors? You wanted colors, they have the 5C! :)

Feel sorry for those of you who were not at least told of the availability problems in line.
 
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