Mr. Tim Cook

[Small White Car]

I think it is very poor business practice to release a highly anticipated product to the world and not actually have the product to sell. This all in the name of publicity so the media can report on the long lines waiting to get their hands on your latest, greatest thing.

I am actually slightly angry that you came here to write this because it shows that you have such little respect for the posters on this site that you think you can just make up any ridiculous thing and we'll believe you.


Do you remember when it was completely impossible to get a Nintendo Wii for the holidays back in 2006?

Nintendo sold 3.19 million Wiis that holiday quarter.

Apple just sold 9 MILLION phones over the weekend.

So for you to say that Apple is restricting supply or that they should have just made more phones is probably the most insane thing you said in that very long post. In what possible way can you justify that statement? The only thing I can think of is that you must think we're all dumb enough to believe anything.

 

[Geckotek]

I understand why the OP is complaining. It was a bit odd to have such constrained supplies of the gold and silver on launch day.

Odd, perhaps since we don't know the background. Frustrating for those that didn't get one, certainly. But the reason I took the time to reply to this guy and all the others like him is that they make bizarre leaps in logic and suddenly develop this story in their head that Apple is out to screw them by withholding stock just to manipulate the press and the public. They imagine shiny gold stacks of iPhones in a warehouse somewhere ready to be sold, but since Tim Cook is such a sick and greedy evil man, he's keeping those gold and silver iPhones all locked up until he gets the media coverage he's looking for. (Or he specifically set a launch date knowing supply would be constrained for the sole purpose of building media coverage.....either theory is ludicrous).

The entire premise is laughable because any clear-minded business person would see hundreds of thousands of potentially lost sales if they don't deliver the product as quickly as the consumer is ready to purchase. This also means they can't hold back Space Gray sales either because customers waiting on the iPhone 5s may walk away to a competitor if the launch is delayed.

I don't think this is what's going on at all.

While I agree that the OP could (should) have planned a little better, Apple decided that they would withhold information about availability which made it difficult for people to make good decisions. Honestly, if I knew how few gold phones they had I probably would have ordered online.

I see it both ways. In this head we have entitled customers and apple apologists who will probably never see eye to eye.

Now this is an argument I can actually see some logic behind. It would have been nice for Apple to reveal that supplies of certain colors would be limited. Of course I'm no PR expert and I'm not really sure if that would have a more negative effect or a positive one in the end. I'm sure someone somewhere is an expert in this stuff.

However, that wasn't the OPs argument at all.

 

[mikeyhd]

It's not really different when the Nitendo Wii is release shortage of stock everywhere for quiet a few month

If Apple would know they would do less Space Grey Color and more of the gold, in fact they loss some sale because of that

I rarely line up, but this year I did the line up, because I was expecting the 5S to be in shortage, but at the Local apple store it has a pretty good selection except for the gold

 

[BeeGood]

No, what happened is that Apple severely underestimated demand for both the gold and the silver iphone. In hindsight, I'm sure they would of boosted production dramatically for these models if they didn't stuff up their own forecasts so badly (some mid-level product analyst is probably going to get the axe at HQ this week) . As a result Apple has probably lost a lot of sales despite a record 3 days. Hence they have hurt themselves in this too. I'm not an "Apple apologist" I couldn't care less about Apple.

It's totally believable that they botched the forecast (based on some quasi-scientific polling before launch day) but even after, they still refused to communicate with customers. The guy behind me asked the apple rep who was taking questions if he could give us a sense of how many gold iPhones they had. The rep gave a robotic, "we can not comment on our inventory at this time".

Maybe apple made a mistake, but this wasn't 100% "oops" on their part. They certainly weren't forthcoming at any point after and that made it tough on customers.

 

[neoelectronaut]

I hope you know Tim cool doesn't visit this forum, try his email instead.

I dunno if this was intentional or a simple spelling mistake, but he's now "Tim Cool" in my head.

Yeah...rock those sunglasses.

 

[TSX]

I dunno if this was intentional or a simple spelling mistake, but he's now "Tim Cool" in my head.

Image

Yeah...rock those sunglasses.

Lol, it was a mistake.

 

[BR3W]

Thanks for the info, that actually was very informative and puts things in perspective. The only thing I question is I wonder if Tim Cook had more to do with changing their supply tactics than Jobs. I'm just saying so because I think I read it somewhere - that it was the reason Cook was hired by Jobs. But I could be wrong.

Guy Kawasaki wrote and published The Apple Way in 1989. Tim Cook was hired in 1998. But I don't know the relationship between Apple and Cook prior to 1998 so perhaps he influenced the company previously.

 

[springsup]

I think the current situation is a little bit crazy, and I think customers have a right to be upset/bitter about it.

The problem, IMO, isn't the low stock per se. They sold 9m iPhones in the first weekend, and they're probably getting orders for millions more every day. Nobody else in the world can pump out products like Apple can, so if they can't meet that demand straight away nobody can.

That said, Apple could do a much better job of communicating with those customers.

Personally, I was told by some stores in my city that they'd have limited stock on the 20th, only to find out that only Apple Stores had any stock at all until the 25th. Lots of customers (including myself) bought and paid for their devices on that basis. Now I'm told that I'll have to wait anywhere from 3-4 weeks (to reiterate: I ordered on launch day from a major 3rd party reseller since there's no Apple Store in my city).

Resellers don't seem to have a clue when they'll get stock in, so they're giving customers incorrect information. We can't even check Apple Store stock online here (Germany).

That said, the carrier stores still seem to have units that they'll happily sell you with a 2-year contract

That's a poor customer experience any way you slice it. Sure, the phone is back-ordered, but it's the lack of communication that makes a lot of customers bitter.

 

[richpuer]

think about this...Would u still want it as bad if u knew u could easily stroll into an apple store, or any carrier store and walk out with it in a matter of minutes?

its only hot because people cant have it. its simple, we want what we cannot have and when we dont get it, we bitch, moan, complain and blame everyone else.

if you could get it anytime, you wouldn't even care and probably hold off for a few weeks to get it, in fact and make any and every excuse not to go to the store today.

 

[applesith]

Wow...What a frothy frenzy. I wasn't quite expecting this when I returned from camp. The first thing I did was sit down with my wife and daughter and read through the replies. My daughter said, "dad they just don't get it. It's not about me it's that they didn't have any phones". Bang on, Brilliant !! We dissected the replies like we were in a college communications class. Thank you all.
You see my post wasn't about why I was trying to get the new iPhone. I gave my daughter the online receipt and told her the phone should be here within a couple weeks. She said O.K., thanks dad. No drama, no trauma.
I also understand that there is just about as much chance of Mr. Cook reading my post on this forum as as it is him reading an e-mail that one of his 6 assistants opens up.
I was trying to make a point that I think the "Apple is starting to show some bruises". I'm glad to see that some of you MR readers actually got that. In retrospect I should have nixed the whole story about why we were looking to get the new iPhone but it turned out to subsequently provide some interesting post reading from some of the readers. Sorry to those who read a post and it doesn't get past the first three synapses before they start throwing spears like a neanderthal.

I bet dinner conversation at your house is very stimulating.

 

[bunnicula]

Odd, perhaps since we don't know the background. Frustrating for those that didn't get one, certainly. But the reason I took the time to reply to this guy and all the others like him is that they make bizarre leaps in logic and suddenly develop this story in their head that Apple is out to screw them by withholding stock just to manipulate the press and the public. They imagine shiny gold stacks of iPhones in a warehouse somewhere ready to be sold, but since Tim Cook is such a sick and greedy evil man, he's keeping those gold and silver iPhones all locked up until he gets the media coverage he's looking for. (Or he specifically set a launch date knowing supply would be constrained for the sole purpose of building media coverage.....either theory is ludicrous).

The entire premise is laughable because any clear-minded business person would see hundreds of thousands of potentially lost sales if they don't deliver the product as quickly as the consumer is ready to purchase. This also means they can't hold back Space Gray sales either because customers waiting on the iPhone 5s may walk away to a competitor if the launch is delayed.

Oh... I agree with you. I was ignoring the conspiracy theory aspect of it. Everyone has some crazy story about why the supplies were limited. I think that they were just that. Limited.

Considering the larger flow of silver and gold that have started to appear over the past couple of days, I would say that they decided to launch anyway, knowing they didn't have as much of those two colors.... but... their original projection was that they WOULD have enough of those two colors.

If they did anything for PR it was launching on the day they said they'd launch and not delaying launch because THAT would have been worse press than just having limited supplies. After all, they were also launching the 5c, and they have plenty of those.

----------

think about this...Would u still want it as bad if u knew u could easily stroll into an apple store, or any carrier store and walk out with it in a matter of minutes?

its only hot because people cant have it. its simple, we want what we cannot have and when we dont get it, we bitch, moan, complain and blame everyone else.

if you could get it anytime, you wouldn't even care and probably hold off for a few weeks to get it, in fact and make any and every excuse not to go to the store today.

I think that's a broad assumption. Plenty of people want it because they like the tech. They like Apple. They like iPhone.

I happen to be one of those people. I don't care about what's hot. I'd enjoy launch day just as much if there were no huge lines and people fighting over them and the most you saw and read was what all of the Mac lovers here on MR talked about leading up to launch.

----------

Just FYI to add here I stopped at a AT&T store today to get my wife a new case for her 5 and asked the manager about returns . 14 days and he added it would do no good since he won't see a silver/ white phone at the very earliest in October.

Didn't read the whole thread, but does the OP have an Apple Store nearby?

They will have silver/white faster than all that. I bought a Space Gray on launch day from AT&T (I thought I would try to go black face again). It drove me nuts all weekend, the constant wiping down the screen. Looks all smudged. I remembered why I've been buying white faced iPhones since 2010. Soo... I checked online at Apple... they had plenty of stock at both the Apple Stores here in town. I went and bought a white/silver and returned my Space Gray. It was a shame, I really liked the Space Gray, but I know me and it will annoy me, the constant screen cleaning.

Sooo... yeah. Go forth. Find a phone.

 

[Klae17]

I think the current situation is a little bit crazy, and I think customers have a right to be upset/bitter about it.

The problem, IMO, isn't the low stock per se. They sold 9m iPhones in the first weekend, and they're probably getting orders for millions more every day. Nobody else in the world can pump out products like Apple can, so if they can't meet that demand straight away nobody can.

That said, Apple could do a much better job of communicating with those customers.

Personally, I was told by some stores in my city that they'd have limited stock on the 20th, only to find out that only Apple Stores had any stock at all until the 25th. Lots of customers (including myself) bought and paid for their devices on that basis. Now I'm told that I'll have to wait anywhere from 3-4 weeks (to reiterate: I ordered on launch day from a major 3rd party reseller since there's no Apple Store in my city).

Resellers don't seem to have a clue when they'll get stock in, so they're giving customers incorrect information. We can't even check Apple Store stock online here (Germany).

That said, the carrier stores still seem to have units that they'll happily sell you with a 2-year contract

That's a poor customer experience any way you slice it. Sure, the phone is back-ordered, but it's the lack of communication that makes a lot of customers bitter.

But they never communicated that info.