I am curious about this iPhone shortage going on right now. You see, Mr. Mac ordered his iPhone on Monday, July 14. Today is Wednesday, July 23, and he still hasn’t gotten his iPhone.
I have been reading a lot about the shortage and manufacturing capacities and skyrocketing demand, but it still does not make sense. I ordered an iPhone through direct fulfilment at the AT&T store (I don’t have an apple store in my city, let’s not talk about it, this is a sour point in my relationship with my town). I still see people on twitter going on about how people are waiting in lines at the apple store for iphones.
Why is my iPhone, which I have put money down on, still on backorder when there are people going to apple stores and waiting in line for one without money already being exchanged?
The word on the street (which is what the kids are calling the Internet now) is that Apple is manufacturing a shortage to keep demand high. They are giving Apple stores a much more limited number of phones which is causing hype that the iPhone is selling out at thousands of stores.
According to TechCruch, they have a first hand account of what some customers heard while waiting in line at an AT&T store to purchase the iPhone, only to realize the store had a limited supply.
The manager got up in front of everybody and asked who was here for an iPhone. He then went on to explain that the store was only able to take orders for iPhones that would be delivered to the store in the next 5-7 days. They would take our money and when the iPhones came in we would get a call to come in and pick them up. If they were not picked up in a week, they would be shipped back and the charges reversed. He also said — and this was the kicker – that he had more iPhones in stock but he could not start selling them until Saturday morning due to his contract with Apple! And those would be on a first come, first served basis
I don’t know how much I believe this story because I went back to my AT&T store the next two days to no avail. So here I am on day 9 with my iPhone still showing as backordered while there are people standing in line for iPhones that are available at places that where previously sold out.
Twitter proof of lines outside of apple stores, while paying customers are on backorder
I want to know if this is true Apple. Are you hurting Mr. Mac because he does not have an Apple store nearby, or are you hurting him because you hate AT&T? It doesn’t really matter, because you are hurting me, Monopoly Mac.