Year after year with every Apple product launch, it's either been "blockbuster" or in the very least, initial demand has always outpaced initial supply. So, for a company with over $180B in the bank, they could've done better research, as well as take a calculated risk to ramp up the initial supply.
I mean, Microsoft made a huge error in producing too many Windows RT tablets which resulted in a write down of $1B, and Amazon lost a couple hundred million with their Fire Phone. Both of these are a mere fraction - however significant - compared to their bottom line.
The difference here is that Apple knows better and we know they know better, so at this point, people (and those famed analysts you always hear making up rumors) might have some justification to start to perceive Apple as naïve, ill-prepared, overly-conservative, or even stingy, and/or cheap. That makes for a poor customer experience and hurts their image, at least for this launch. I wouldn't be surprised if this hurts Angela's reputation as well - you know some journalist, blogger, or analyst is going to want to place blame somewhere.
