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What is the reason you think apple is not having preorders of the 5S

  • Ample stock: there are enough phones for demand this time

    Votes: 16 24.2%
  • Marketing: puts more attention on the 5C

    Votes: 24 36.4%
  • Media: Capitalizing on the media coverage of long lines at the apple store

    Votes: 19 28.8%
  • Other (explain below!)

    Votes: 7 10.6%

  • Total voters
    66

Italianblend

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
1,794
247
Fatima
What do you think is the reason for the lack of preorders on the 5S?

Very strange for apple to do this.
 
I think because of its availability is so close to the media event there was no need to pre-order. People had only to wait a couple of days to buy one and now they can get it.
 
I will go with "supply" being the problem.

We will not have long to tell if Apple can cover the purchases. If the stores have limited number for the 5S with days of waiting before more arrive, we will hear it here for sure!

I am not waiting in line so I will order on the 20th
 
I thought about possible shortages, but actually it just occurred to me that prior pre-orders just lengthened shipping times after the first day or two if availability became limited. The opening day in-store inventories were allocated separately.

I'm going with marketing for now - double the hype, double the interest. There could be other reasons we might never know about.

I'll find out next week, along with just a "few" others...
 
I really have no idea. Limited supply? That's always the case at launch and even more so when you launching it in more places at once. To create lines for publicity? Perhaps but generally speaking big cities like NY are going to have big lines regardless and those are the places the press cover. Not some Apple Store in a small city.

Honestly I just can't figure this one out. I mean if you want press coverage is not preorders selling out in 5 minutes news? (If low supply is the case.). In that case, it would have driven more people to the stores once they sold out online today. I think that would have led to even bigger lines next week.
 
I fear it is because there are too few stock.

Apple want the free media coverage generated by long queues at stores on the release day. Pre-orders are usually delivered to people's homes - something that won't generate any free media coverage at all.

There have been repeated rumours about productions problems because of the fingerprint sensor, including several from Mr Kuo who has developed quite a track record on these things. For these reasons I think the initial stocks will be so low, they can barely supply stores in the launch countries, which will generate free media coverage, let alone provide pre-orders which will not.
 
EVERYONE.

I live in France, and just pre-ordered my champagne 5S. Don't know if you guys can do this in the US but simply pre-order it through your operator (At&t, Verizon, T-Mobile...). Yes, it WON'T be unlocked, but you can have it done for less that $50 in second-hand and non-official shops (I personally already have had it done back when I was in New York: great experience, not a creepy store by any means. The entire process cost me $30 at the time).

Hope this helped!
 
So apple is allowing preorders in France? That's interesting...

Maybe it's about shipping those things from china.
 
I never thought of that. So, why would a lack of supply prevent pre-orders this time around but not in past launches? I remember the ipad 2 launch and it was pretty horrible. Every store got like 5 a day.
 
So apple is allowing preorders in France? That's interesting...

Maybe it's about shipping those things from china.

Nope, not Apple. In my case, Orange is (one of our network operator here, along with SFR, Bouygues Telecom and others). I was really surprised to found out about it today when walking through a mall. Just stepped in an Orange store and asked the guy about the iPhone 5S availability. He said they started accepting pre-orders today. I am PSYCHED! :D:D:D:D
 
I never thought of that. So, why would a lack of supply prevent pre-orders this time around but not in past launches? . . .

Because if supply is limited, they have to prioritise the stores in order to justify the overhead of running them.

It's better to have the store staff busy selling phones than to sell over the internet in a low supply situation.

The opposite is true when supply is plentiful

Store staff can also sell add-on products more easily.
 
5c, higher profit margin, can be produced in large quantities in a short time.

5s, lower profit margin, cannot be produced in large quantities due to lengthy manufacturing time.

:confused: I have no idea.

Off topic:

I wish Apple were knocked down a few pegs so that they would release or allow pre-ordering of iPhones in more countries at the same time. Sucks I tell ya!
 
Nope, not Apple. In my case, Orange is (one of our network operator here, along with SFR, Bouygues Telecom and others). I was really surprised to found out about it today when walking through a mall. Just stepped in an Orange store and asked the guy about the iPhone 5S availability. He said they started accepting pre-orders today. I am PSYCHED! :D:D:D:D

Haha you're lucky :D you don't need a tent for waiting in line :D
 
I think because of its availability is so close to the media event there was no need to pre-order. People had only to wait a couple of days to buy one and now they can get it.

Last year it was same the same time frame and they did pre-orders. Having a pre-order for the 5C and not the 5S makes me think it is a supply issue. They will have a ton of 5C's in store and hope people who do not snag a 5S will buy a 5C.
 
My guess the discontinuation of the iPhone 5 will allow many of the parts to be utilized for the 5S therefore having a decent amount of stock to keep up with demand of the 5S.
 
Other: Too little stock.

New fingerprint sensor. New A7 chip possibly being produced by TSMC. It's not like these things are easy to produce.
 
As I said in another post:

I can think of 3 possible reasons

1) Production issues. The Touch ID interface may have taken time to ready and less iPhones are ready for launch.

2) China. With China being a launch day market, first for iPhone, there would be less units for other markets.

3) Mix of 1) and 2).
 
Apple was spending much money sending each phone directly from overseas. With this phones will be available in stores cutting the free shipping cost. Additionally, as the novelty of iPhones has gone and there is not much difference between Samsung phones and an IPhone, the sales growth has slowed. The sales is now mainly a replacement cycle and Apple is able to meet its demand from day one of 5S sales. The 5C is in short supply and hence they will continue to ship from factory direct.
 
My guess would be that the supply is limited right now.

Yep, needs another option. All the media reports leading up to the announcement hinted at limited supply due to the biometric sensor.

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I never thought of that. So, why would a lack of supply prevent pre-orders this time around but not in past launches? I remember the ipad 2 launch and it was pretty horrible. Every store got like 5 a day.

Right, and it's harder to tell someone face to face that you only have 5 in stock and they sold the first 2 minutes of opening. I think Apple learned their lesson from that and this is why we have no 5s preorders.
 
So, if it is limited stock, why not simply delay the announcement and launch by a few weeks? I would imagine that Apple doesn't want the headache of people complaining about low supply.
 
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