shouldn't new customers (or adding a line) have first priority...
Are you kidding me?
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O2 Limiting iPhone 4 Orders to Existing Customers in UK as Rumored Display Shortages Cramp Supplies
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Are you kidding me?
That doesn't mean the information isn't available. I worked at IBM and there were loads of reports that knew exactly the numbers my division was producing and shipping of our various machines. Some in IBM even used to help individual analysts improve the accuracy of their reporting.
I'm sure these rankings exist, I just haven't seen them (or taken note).
How is this botched. Its not Apple's fault demand is so high, well it is, for building such a cool damn phone. And its takes time to ramp up production.
shouldn't new customers (or adding a line) have first priority...
no? first comes, first serves. if you came to the carrier first, why shouldn't you get something like a loyalty bonus?
yea but from a business side, surely getting new people locked into contracts asap would be a priority as most existing people are already in one.... new people will just go elsewhere....
Yes, Im pretty bummed out that I skipped the gs in order to be completely eligible for this phone, and then they basically tear up every gs customers contract and give them the same price as those who honored the 2 yr agreement that they signed. I have NEVER once thought of leaving ATT even if they werent the only iphone provider, until now. I have always had great service with ATT but after this, if/when verizon gets the iphone (provided they have comparable service and plans in my area) I will most likely switch carriers over this. Apple has me hooked with the hardware/software/experience, but I would love to be able to say that I wont buy this phone but in the end, I will buy it.
How many you sell in one day or by pre-orders is not relevant. Apple would have been manufacturing the iPhone 4 since around February / March this year so should have build up an initial supply to meet the launch demand.
The reason I mentioned Nokia, is that they sell approx 3x as many smartphones as Apple.
Where there is a big difference, is that Apple only ships two models, an 8Gig previous generation and 16 / 32 Gig current generations whereas Nokia sells a wider range of devices so the pre-sales for a single device are less of a struggle to manage.
Even going back over 6 months Steve Jobs was quoted as saying that this upgrade would be an A+ one. So they would have known that demand would be very high. It is a surprise that they didn't have plans in place to bring on additional suppliers / manufacturing facilities should the demand be as high.
This should be evidence enough that Apple needs to widen the iPhone range, maybe having a Pro and non-Pro device, each with it's own development / launch cycle.
My suggestion would be for the iPhone 4 to be the Pro device, and then re-design the 3GS into the non-Pro with the resolution of the 3GS display but at 2.8 inches, 3 MPix camera, smaller battery and 8 / 16 Gig capacities but in an iPhone 4 type package, if slightly thinner / smaller (maybe plastic rear rather than glass).
The Pro (iPhone 4) could then be offered in 16, 32 and 64 Gig options.
It may also be a good ideal for Apple to look at other formats, for example, an iPhone nano with 2.4 inch screen.
Your wrong. The people that they let upgrade early WERE locked into contacts still. ATT just agreed to tear it up. I am a long time ATT customer with two 3g phones to upgrade and Im NOT locked into a contract. By letting everyone with a gs phone basically uprgrade early for free, kept people like me who honored and paid out my contract from being able to get the phone for what looks like an extra month.
I suspect more like mid may, if I recall week numbers of previous launch phones right.
So, uh, are we going to see a white iPhone 4 released before the iPhone 5 is out? This is stupid. And STILL nothing from Apple on the white iPhone 4.
um i don't think you really got what i was saying. i was saying that with O2 only letting existing contract people upgrade to the iphone, people who are already locked in to stay with them for another 6 months, they're basically losing tons of potential new people they can lock into a new contract, as the existing customers who are locked in contract with the 3GS that would want the 4 would easily wait the extra month to then upgrade after the influx of new people as they're stuck with o2 for that time anyway....
My point exactly. That's why it's proprietary information. It's not available publicly.
The number of models is irrelevant. Nokia product launches are easier to manage because of much, much lower demand. Nokia's much higher production capacity is already portioned off for their other products, and they can't sacrifice production space for a new model that brings down their volume for other models, otherwise you're just shifting the shortage, not eliminating it.
It's not that easy. It's not like there are that many suppliers and factories sitting around and waiting for customers. It's like saying the mall should add more parking when its lots are full and it's land-locked. More to the point, there is only a single supplier for the display, so additional factory lines for Apple wouldn't solve anything. It's more likely that yield problems and not output capacity are the constraint, so even added capacity at the display manufacturer would not be all that helpful.
Having more models doesn't change anything with regard to production capacity.
The line may expand in the future, and Apple could certainly invest in a dedicated manufacturing facility, but these aren't trivial undertakings.
I have to say it is nice to see a carrier treat their current customers better than trying to grab new ones. It seems you can always find much better deals if you are willing to switch and become a new customer than if you are an existing one just wanting to upgrade. it always has annoyed me.
O2 understands give the current ones a better deal since they choose to be with the carrier longer and are not just switching for some fancy deal.
O2 understands give the current ones a better deal since they choose to be with the carrier longer and are not just switching for some fancy deal.
Leaked photos began appearing in February, and photos that turned out to be leaked iPad photos in January showed the iPhone 4.
It therefore looks like Apple were testing the iPhone back at the end of 2009 (there were reports showing up of an unreleased iPhone in website access logs as far back as November).
Testing would probably complete by End of Jan / early Feb and manufacturing key components by mid Feb for assembly by end of Feb / early March.
There is no way that they only started manufacturing in May, given the device was going to be announced in June. You only need to think about how many leaked parts, etc there has been to know that parts have been in mass production for some time. Prototype parts are under careful control and only available for access by a very few people. It is only when parts are mass produced, that potential for rogue employees to aquire parts without anyone noticing.
My Macbook Pro was built over 7 weeks prior to it's launch and they don't sell anything like in the quantites of iPhones!
Phil
yea but i'm with O2, but on pay and go, and from what i've heard, i cannot get the new iphone on contract as its contract only upgrading allowed. so they're still screwing existing customers....
No where close is absolutely right.
During Q4 2009 Nokia sold 126.9 million phones. That is 126.9 million phones in 92 days. That is about 1 379 000 phones per day. Every single day. Actually sold phones in one day, not just taking preorders for one day.
Yes, the iPhone is great and yes Nokia sells both cheap and expensive phones and yes Americans have a hard time understanding that Nokia does sell advanced smart phones in other parts of the world and all that but the point is: 600 000 phones in one day isn't anything unheard of.
thats for the entire nokia range, which is what, about 20 models or more? as opposed to the iphone 4....
Fair enough. Best of luck to the rest of them!
Why didn't I pre order two and put the second straight up on ebay? These sound like they'll be gold dust.
umm, i really don't think they are (on eBay already).
ummm. they have been on ebay for a couple weeks already and have been selling for as high as $2000 and at average $1300 for 32GB iPhone 4's.
http://completed.shop.ebay.com/Cell-Phones-Smartphones-/3312/i.html?rt=nc&LH_Complete=1&_nkw=iphone%204&_catref=1&_dmpt=Cell_Phones&_fln=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m283&_rdc=1
I have some thoughts on both sides of this issue
On the absolutely skeptical side:
1- Scott Moritz has an amazingly bad record. He's been a consistent naysayer with regards to everything Apple, almost always doom and gloom, and every such prediction has been absolutely wrong. He's worse than no info. If he says it, the chances improve that it's NOT going to happen.
2- Kumar (Moritz's source for this article) has a really bad record as well. His superficial analysis of "disappointing" Chinese iPhone sales was embarrassing. (See this link ) We all know how that turned out.
On the credible side
Preorders were capped at 600,000 and it appears that all online orders made beyond that will not ship till July 14th. That's 3 weeks after first ship. It seems like total preorders and online orders will have been limited to 600,000 units for the first 3 weeks.
I'm sure that Apple has significant contract obligations to supply iphones to walmart, radio shack, best buy, and many more. And I'm sure that those obligations (and plans for unreserved phones in apple stores) represent large numbers of allocated iphones that will be sold in addition to the 600K. Nonetheless, what's a reasonable lowest percentage that apple would likely reserve for total preorder and online orders vs in-store obligations for the first three weeks. If that number is 25% (a number pulled from thin air, granted, but it seems reasonable somehow), that would imply a max of 2.4 million iphones for the first three weeks.
2.4M as a cap for the first three weeks doesn't sound very good, considering they sold 2 million in the first weekend of 3Gs sales (I think I'm remembering that correctly, but let me know if I'm wrong), and considering the announcement occurred about 3 weeks before first ship, which means very low sales for THAT 3 week period as well. (Normally you'd expect to make up for that period with huge sales right after ship)
My take is that there really are supply constraints (with the unique screen as likely a candidate as any other part) and, as a shareholder, I'm really hoping this is just a ramping issue, which is soon resolved.
Of course if the online-preorder percentage (vs in-store allocations) is 10% then 6 million for the first 3 weeks wouldn't look terribly bad. So, a very big question is what is that likely percentage. (For 3 weeks of iPhones allocated to preorders and online orders vs iPhones allocated to Apple stores and third party stores)
Other thoughts?
Pete
On the absolutely skeptical side:
1- Scott Moritz has an amazingly bad record. He's been a consistent naysayer with regards to everything Apple, almost always doom and gloom, and every such prediction has been absolutely wrong. He's worse than no info. If he says it, the chances improve that it's NOT going to happen.
2- Kumar (Moritz's source for this article) has a really bad record as well. His superficial analysis of "disappointing" Chinese iPhone sales was embarrassing. (See this link ) We all know how that turned out.
On the credible side
Preorders were capped at 600,000 and it appears that all online orders made beyond that will not ship till July 14th. That's 3 weeks after first ship. It seems like total preorders and online orders will have been limited to 600,000 units for the first 3 weeks.
I'm sure that Apple has significant contract obligations to supply iphones to walmart, radio shack, best buy, and many more. And I'm sure that those obligations (and plans for unreserved phones in apple stores) represent large numbers of allocated iphones that will be sold in addition to the 600K. Nonetheless, what's a reasonable lowest percentage that apple would likely reserve for total preorder and online orders vs in-store obligations for the first three weeks. If that number is 25% (a number pulled from thin air, granted, but it seems reasonable somehow), that would imply a max of 2.4 million iphones for the first three weeks.
2.4M as a cap for the first three weeks doesn't sound very good, considering they sold 2 million in the first weekend of 3Gs sales (I think I'm remembering that correctly, but let me know if I'm wrong), and considering the announcement occurred about 3 weeks before first ship, which means very low sales for THAT 3 week period as well. (Normally you'd expect to make up for that period with huge sales right after ship)
My take is that there really are supply constraints (with the unique screen as likely a candidate as any other part) and, as a shareholder, I'm really hoping this is just a ramping issue, which is soon resolved.
Of course if the online-preorder percentage (vs in-store allocations) is 10% then 6 million for the first 3 weeks wouldn't look terribly bad. So, a very big question is what is that likely percentage. (For 3 weeks of iPhones allocated to preorders and online orders vs iPhones allocated to Apple stores and third party stores)
Other thoughts?
Pete
I see. So Apples run into technical difficulties because they sold 600.000 identical units in one day and Nokia is able to handle selling far more units in one day because they have several models.
Makes perfect sense.
Are you really comparing all the Nokia's lineup WORLDWIDE, with a single Apple product in 5 countries ?
Do you know what are you speaking about ?