'Late' iPhone 5 Pre-Orders Being Delivered Early

[firestarter]

Anyway, in order for Apple to fulfill likely millions of pre-orders upwards of a week or more early would have required millions of people to cancel their pre-orders on Friday because:

1) They secured an iPhone on Friday at a retail location

I'm not saying they cancelled because they bought at a retail location. I'm wondering how many cancelled outright and decided to wait for mapping to be sorted out. This is a big deal outside the US and a potential market-killer in Asia.

Cancelling by buying retail wouldn't take an order out of the channel, would it?

2) Were able to then cancel their pre-order before it went to "Preparing to Ship" status which many people are reporting happened on or before those retail locations opened for business (assuming they were on normal operating hours).

Yes, some people saw their orders 'preparing to ship' before Friday's retail release. But were those people the ones with October ship dates? No.

Sorry, but I don't find that argument a convincing one.

That's because for some odd reason you've re-cast it as a scenario involving short dated shipping and people buying at Apple stores instead. Unlikely examples makes for poor prediction.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

The increased supply probably consists of scuffed returns.

Yeah right. The scuffed returns will go to the refurb store. The rest of us will get new iPhones.

Or I can say the 2nd batch will not be scuffed but I'm not dumb enough to rationalize like that.

 

[GlastoEls]

Walked straight into the Apple Store NYC 14th Street yesterday at 6pm; all the 16s had gone, they had most of the 32s in both colours, and some of the 64s.

Half hour later I walked out with a lovely black AT&T 32. Absolutely loving the phone so far!

Enjoy your retirement on my 30 pin speakers, dear 3GS. You've been a real friend!

 

[Rogifan]

The reason for early deliveries is actually pretty simple. Many people (like myself) preordered for delivery, but didn't want to wait several weeks to get their phone. So we cancelled our orders and picked one up at the store on release day.

Stupid AT&T wouldn't let me upgrade early unless I did it over the phone. My order is still processing. They have plenty of my model in the stores but once you've ordered via phone you can't change it, the wont let you finish your order in store. Grr....

 

[3282868]

Any word on store supplies? I know, it differs depending on location, I've tried to get an idea if stock is decent as the 4S was last year - stores had more in stock than believed.

 

[Andyguy65]

No email yet, but my phone that was originally quoted for Oct. 9th now says "preparing for shipment". That sounds like a good thing.

Did it say just '9th October' or e.g 09-15? As mine says delivers:09-15

 

[iChrist]

Ok...

So what about the price-gouged cables and adaptors?

 

[DrMotownMac]

Okay, this is weird. I ordered four iPhones online from Apple at about 5 PM EDT on September 14th. Black 64 GB for me and my dad, and white 64 GB for my wife and my mom, all as replacements for our AT&T iPhone 4's (not 4S, but plural for 4). I logged into my mom's Apple Store account first, used her credit card to order the ones for my parents, then immediately logged out and logged in under my account and ordered the phones for me and my wife.

So today at 6:27 am, I get an e-mail saying my wife's iPhone 5 has shipped, but nothing about mine. Also, my parents get an e-mail saying my mom's iPhone 5 has shipped, but nothing about my dad's. So, it LOOKS like the white 64 GB models may be shipping faster than the black ones. I am REALLY, REALLY hoping that I get the e-mail about mine later today, but I'm a little worried.

Originally, we were supposed to get all four phones delivered on October 5th, but now the ship dates on my wife's and mom's phone has been moved up to September 28th, while my dad and I still have October 5th shipping dates.

Anyone else noticing any difference between the black and white phones?

 

[striker33]

Looks like a lot of people will get their damaged black iPhones a lot sooner than expected.

 

[freeman727]

Looks like a lot of people will get their damaged black iPhones a lot sooner than expected.

That's what cases and films are for.

I ordered on 9/14 at 6:00 a.m. I got the estimated delivery on 10/5 originally. I just checked on the Apple Store website and the tracking shows mine is leaving China as we speak. Yay!

Hopefully it will get here on Monday or Tuesday.

 

[Shanpdx]

Quarter closing

Quarter closing, all the iPhone 5 shipped and delivered by Sep 30th are counted... so get them to the customers to Sep 30th...

Also many guys are realizing LTE is not available everywhere. in the entire state of Oregon, only Portland has it for ATT

on a different note, they may be proudcing these on the robots very fast

iPad mini, iMac, Mac Mini all pending ...

iPod touch, iPod nano all in the pipeline ...

 

[cameronjpu]

The stupid thing is that in the UK, it works out BETTER to go on contract for the first time ever. Three are doing a plan that works out under £100 more than buying the phone outright and being on a £10/mo contract.

I'm surprised that that's the first time ever. You would assume that the carriers would place some value on you being on a contract (so they have predictable income) so that they would subsidize the phone more to reward you for that. Strange that that's never been the case before.

 

[OTACORB]

I must the odd man out; preordered 6AM EDT on the 14th and still shows "processing"

Mine said processing up to 12 hours before I actually got it! So, that doesn't mean a whole lot.

 

[PeopleTheseDays]

Still no Anandtech benchmark news?

Image

The iPhone 5 Performance Preview (anandtech)

I can't believe someone took the time to photoshop these graphs together with a hypocritical statement as "it's not all about specs" and have it posted in a non-related thread.

Good job on Apple for building up a good supply of iPhones before launch though.

 

[msalganik]

Based on my las two laptop purchases from Apple I wouldn't be surprised if they have a policy for quoting a later date than their actual estimate. That way, if the customer gets it "early" then they're happy, and if there is a delay, well they can still get it "on time" based on the original shipping estimate. Frankly sounds like a smart policy (I know I was happy to get my computers early )

 

[Koodauw]

Still no change for me. I ordered at 6 am. white ATT 16GB

So far ive only seen the black version dates moved up. Anyone order a white one and have it's ship date moved up?

Edit: I just got the email. My phone will be here on the 28th

 

[Angel841]

I ordered my on september 14 at 6:00p.m on at&t and its still on backorder

 

[SatManager]

Now if we can get Apple to move up delivery of the now backordered USB Lightning cable and 30 pin Lightning adapters.

 

[rmwebs]

I'm surprised that that's the first time ever. You would assume that the carriers would place some value on you being on a contract (so they have predictable income) so that they would subsidize the phone more to reward you for that. Strange that that's never been the case before.

I know it wasnt the case with the 4s or 3Gs - cant say about the 4 tho! I remember the 4s ones were stupid though.

Even on the iPhone 5, if you get it through T-Mobile/Orange, Vodafone or O2 the deals are terrible - not sure why anyone would bother! Works out over £1000 and thats without unlimited data.

 

[marioguarneros]

Sim free or contract?

Well i hope Apple do catch up. Mines says early October but no word of the date being fixed or getting it quicker...ordered 15th STILL October!

SIM Free. I had to cut my SIM cards to Nano myself as Vodafone and Eitsalat don't yet provide nano sims, Vodafone UK for prepaid and Etisalat at all.

 

[Medic311]

i ordered a 5 and got a 4S. what gives...did they think i wouldn't notice?

these guys didn't:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdIWKytq_q4&feature=player_embedded

 

[bushman4]

APPLE is smart.............as if we didn't know.


Better for a customer to see an email 'your ship date has been moved up', then a email " Your ship datre has been delayed'
Bottom Line: Always quote a longer ship date than anticipated.

 

[gatorknight904]

I ordered two iPhones @ 3:00am CST on apple.com when pre-orders went live.

1) Black 32 GB AT&T - Originally Oct 5th delivery date. Shipping to TX
2) Black 16 GB AT&T - Originally Oct 2nd delivery date. Shipping to PA

Both went to Preparing for shipment yesterday morning. Checked this morning and they still said preparing for shipment.

Just to be safe, I used the ups "track by reference" method using my billing phone number for each. Both showed as shipped from china with tracking number but no delivery date.

I called UPS they said both are scheduled to delivery the next business day by 10am (which will be Monday the 24th).

Trying not to get my hopes up.....haha

 

[ogee]

I ordered my iPhone very late on the 19/early morning of the 20th. It arrived this morning. T-Mobile Germany contract extension. Shame it was DOA, but that happens. Quick trip to the Apple store and the made a GB swap.

Happy bunny.

 

[Bafflefish]

Thank you for having common sense!

Except that I ordered within the first hour of preorder availability on the 14th from Apple, and have yet to get a shipment notification while in the meantime people who ordered 12+ hours later have been getting theirs. So Apple is most definitely not shipping the oldest orders first.