Except they beat their own sales records every year so what you're alleging is complete BS.
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Isn't Tim cook supposed to be a logistical genius?.
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Except they beat their own sales records every year so what you're alleging is complete BS.
They can only pump out so many iPhones within a specific time period. I am sure there were making design changes as close to the release date as they could.
no it's not. If you limited the supply of pre orders and moved all of that stock to post launch stock, the people who could not get a phone on pre order would just line up on launch day or there after and you would still sell more phones than the year before. You'd also make the lines longer and get more media coverage. All without hurting sales at all.
Apple is purposely creating a shortage and we know this but not for the reason some think!
Every year they have offered a Pre-Order its sold out before launch day, yet launch day comes and magically all these apple stores have plenty of phones, the ATT & Verizon stores have them too..
So yes each vendor did set a limit on how many they would let get sucked up by pre-order, did they do this as a marketing strategy? I have no idea, however it seems like to me based on information that is almost certain its because come launch day they want all the retail stores opening up with plenty to sell.
I suppose one could argue that they are trying to increase the size of lines for more media coverage, and maybe limiting pre-orders does this. However if your going to tell me that No body would line up at an apple store on launch day if pre-orders never ran out, your sadly mistaken... thats like saying since all apple products are available on-line no one shops in their stores. (Or for any dual internet and physical store front company) You CAN order almost anything on-line these days, if the fact of things being available on-line meant no one goes to the store, wouldn't all the malls have shut down several years ago??
ALSO could you imagine the outrage of customers if they had lined up to find out the store did not have enough phones? or did not have any?? I remember in past years especially Launch 1 stores did run out and people where awful pissed they had waited in line for X hours to get to the front and find out they ran out..
Every year they have offered a Pre-Order its sold out before launch day, yet launch day comes and magically all these apple stores have plenty of phones, the ATT & Verizon stores have them too..
So yes each vendor did set a limit on how many they would let get sucked up by pre-order, did they do this as a marketing strategy? I have no idea, however it seems like to me based on information that is almost certain its because come launch day they want all the retail stores opening up with plenty to sell.
I suppose one could argue that they are trying to increase the size of lines for more media coverage, and maybe limiting pre-orders does this. However if your going to tell me that No body would line up at an apple store on launch day if pre-orders never ran out, your sadly mistaken... thats like saying since all apple products are available on-line no one shops in their stores. (Or for any dual internet and physical store front company) You CAN order almost anything on-line these days, if the fact of things being available on-line meant no one goes to the store, wouldn't all the malls have shut down several years ago??
ALSO could you imagine the outrage of customers if they had lined up to find out the store did not have enough phones? or did not have any?? I remember in past years especially Launch 1 stores did run out and people where awful pissed they had waited in line for X hours to get to the front and find out they ran out..
It happens. They probably knew when they wanted to release the phone. They most likely built as many as possible in that time. No company is going to work to get a ton of extra production capacity up and running simply for the initial surge. If anything a sold out phone will just make people want it more.
Those people were way too into their gadgets. It's really quite sad that anyone would do this.
They are going to eventually share how many sold in preorders. These super-genuis tactics people place on Apple could backfire just as easily as succeed.
There were 600,000 preorders in the first 24 hours for the 4, 1,000,000 for the 4S. They sell more in preorders every year.
Sorry it was not meant for you, i was making a general comment on the people that say its boring.
I'll bet you all those people who said it was boring were up at midnight to pre-order! It happens every year.
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This post is pathetic... Prime example of someone who is just talking up steam and has no real idea what they are talking about. Sale numbers are public. They cannot hide or fake these numbers. If they limit supply on pre-orders, they limit the number of phones they can sell opening weekend. An Apple store may have 3,000 people line up, but they can only handle a certain amount of customers in one day. It takes time to set up the iPhone, show the customer a few tips, and make sure all their data is transferred over (or for the new iPhone owners - so there email accounts and such are set up properly.)
You cannot limit supply, because it will hurt you in the end. Like I also mentioned, sale numbers are public and you can see exactly what they sell.
Please learn a few things before you make up a load of crap.
I wonder if these people that believe Apple manipulates the supply to artificially increase demand also believe in Santa and the Tooth Fairy? 
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Is that why they increase the number allocated to pre-orders each year?
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Because nobody knows yet. So yeah, that statistic is meaningless until we do.
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Is that why they increase the number allocated to pre-orders each year?
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Because nobody knows yet. So yeah, that statistic is meaningless until we do.
I wonder if these people that believe Apple manipulates the supply to artificially increase demand also believe in Santa and the Tooth Fairy?
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Is that why they increase the number allocated to pre-orders each year?
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Because nobody knows yet. So yeah, that statistic is meaningless until we do.
They could delay the intro by a month and have twice as many available. They don't because it gives them good publicity to sell out faster than ever.
They don't for WAY more reasons than that. Wow. Go back and read up. We've listed dozens of reasons in this thread already.
Edit: oops, wrong thread. Anyway, go study JIT production. Warehousing stock for an extra month is a bad idea for several reasons.
Given that it was launched in 8 countries this time, the initial supply was probably at least as large, and likely larger than last year. There were going to be lines and lots of publicity next Friday anyway. They don't need to constrain supplies in order to create enthusiasm. If it sold out in 8 hours instead of 1, it still would have generated media attention yesterday.
Apple doesn't need to create demand. It makes zero sense to limit pre-order supply. I've no doubt Apple would love to put out a press release on Monday touting huge pre-order sales over the weekend. If they release nothing or a number that is smaller how is that good publicity?
I think Tim cook is a logistics genius
He knows that investing enough to meet launch demand fully could be an over-investment in fixed costs, capital expenditures.
Being perfect on sept 21, 2012
May leave apple with over/excess capacity in January-August 2013 that they don't really want or need
Building factories that are fully utilized over their lives costs us at launch
But saves the stockholders and company from over-building early and being left with idle capacity later
He knows that investing enough to meet launch demand fully could be an over-investment in fixed costs, capital expenditures.
Being perfect on sept 21, 2012
May leave apple with over/excess capacity in January-August 2013 that they don't really want or need
Building factories that are fully utilized over their lives costs us at launch
But saves the stockholders and company from over-building early and being left with idle capacity later
I suspect Apple, while not holding back inventory, had a very short initial supply of iPhones. It's just unheard of for a phone to completely sell out in less than 1 hour in the middle of the night. Then all the sudden people who ordered over the span of the next 6 hours are all getting theirs on the same day. People who ordered at 3:54 EST received Oct 5th shipping dates. Me, I ordered at 9:45 EST and also received an Oct 5th shipping date. Doesn't make much sense. The only way to explain this is a very small initial supply, or thst demand greatly trailed off past the preorder 1 hour mark.
I so enjoy the amazing amount of maturity in your post, and because I refuse to stoop to your level I will stay on point with the facts at hand instead of resorting to personal attacks upon someone I don't know.
1. You claim they can not limit the supply on pre-orders. So then explain to me, why all the Apple, ATT, VZ and sprint stores will have stock come launch day. How is that possible? Right now Shipping estimates are floating between 1-3 weeks pending model and vendor. If they have not limited pre-orders in any way shape or form, then that means all phones built and ready to sell for the next week at minimum are spoken for by a pre-order, which if true would mean come launch day no phones will be available for purchase at any store. Maybe your right..... though in less than a week we will know for sure.. and I'm betting your wrong.
2. Sales Numbers are Public, actually not necessarily. Yes Apple is publicly traded and files a 10-K as required by the SEC but please provide evidence as to where it requires them to disclose the number of units sold? I can't find it, yes it does require them to disclose their consolidated financial data and from that intelligent people can probably figure out a lot even how many units sold. However I'm not convinced that based on the data required you could actually delineate pre-orders from launch day. However as I'm sure the numbers will be good Apple will freely disclose the numbers in the best light possible. Which may never actually separate out pre-ordres from launch day sales... If I recall correctly last year the only firm number apple released was "launch weekend" which was pre-orders thru sunday. So your right that they can not fake the numbers but they certainly CAN and WILL disclose them in methods that it is to their advantage.
3. Your right physical stores have a limit of how many phones they can sell, however you seem to also forget that its not just Apple stores selling them as all phones sold at VZ, ATT, and Sprint also count towards their numbers...
Finally, my ENTIRE point was regardless of what anyone thinks, each vendor (Apple, VZ, ATT, & Sprint) HAD to set a limit on the number of phones they would guarantee launch day delivery for, because with out that limit they would not be able to guarantee that their stores had stock for launch day. At no point did I agree with the posters who said they are limiting stock to increase hype, I said it was POSSIBLE as it is and unless your prepared to post your Apple Corporate badge as proof you are in the know then you do not know ether.
In the future, I would suggest you learn to open your mind, consider others ideas and opinions then learn to respect them as that. We are all here because of a mutual enjoyment of apple products, not to belittle people and attack them personally.
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People probably saw the shipping estimate jump up and decided they would rather try to get one on launch day at one of the stores, and some folks probably decided they didn't mind waiting as they might not have time or ability to go stand in line all day launch day.
Ofcourse Apple isn't creating a shortage intentionally. There are two simple reasons for this.
1. Apple wants to make money. Phones that aren't available can't be sold and therefore can't generate a profit.
2. The demand for the iPhone 5 will be at its peak during launch. To meet the demand without shortages, Apple has to increase the production capacity which is very costly. Also, after a few weeks the demand will go down and this extra production capacity won't be needed anymore, what are you gonna do with it? So Apple has to make a large investment only to meet a small peak in demand, apparently this investment will be too large.
Intentionally creating a shortage is something you do when you've spent too much time on your Macbook in the attic.
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1. Apple wants to make money. Phones that aren't available can't be sold and therefore can't generate a profit.
2. The demand for the iPhone 5 will be at its peak during launch. To meet the demand without shortages, Apple has to increase the production capacity which is very costly. Also, after a few weeks the demand will go down and this extra production capacity won't be needed anymore, what are you gonna do with it? So Apple has to make a large investment only to meet a small peak in demand, apparently this investment will be too large.
Intentionally creating a shortage is something you do when you've spent too much time on your Macbook in the attic.
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This is basically what I meant to say
.If you have an October delivery, your phone likely hasn't been assembled yet. Apple operates like a well oiled machine. They know how many they have in stock worldwide. They know how many are assembled per hour. They have a trigger in their system when orders reach a set number, and how long the next batch will take to be assembled and delivered. Of course that doesn't account for Samsung doing it's best to get a federal judge to ban shipments from entering US.