Sam Oliver
Consumers in the United States will no longer face a backlog when purchasing an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus from Apple's online store, as supplies of the popular smartphones appear to have reached parity with demand nearly four months after their release.
All but one configuration are now listed as "in stock," and spot checks at Apple retail outlets in the southern U.S. show most models available for immediate in-store pickup. The lone holdout — Â the sim-free iPhone 6 Plus — comes with a lead time of just one day.
The iPhone 6 series has proven to be Apple's most popular iPhone lineup ever, with at least one analysis suggesting that Apple may have sold as many as 69 million of the devices over the holidays. As a result, Apple has struggled to keep up with demand.
Shipping times slipped to as long as 4 weeks for the larger iPhone 6 Plus just one day after pre-orders went live last September, while the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 say waits of 7 to 10 days. Those queues grew shorter in December, though the never dropped below one day.
Supply also appears to be improving in Europe, though Apple's hottest market — Â China — Â remains underserved. The company still requires buyers to pre-register online in order to reserve a device for purchase, and recent on-site checks at Apple retail outlets in Hong Kong showed dozens of customers lined up to purchase a new handset throughout the day.
Andrew Orr
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Wesley Hilliard
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15 Comments
So, an entire financial quarter where they couldn't meet demand fully. Impressive.
This is typical. Remember that U.S. sales now accounts for less than half of Apple's total revenues. Just reaching supply-demand parity in the U.S. isn't particularly significant, especially in light of the fact that Apple still has not fully rolled out the new handsets to the rest of the world.
Heck, I'd venture to guess that some smaller regional American mobile operators still don't have access to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Supply meeting demand here in the U.S. will mean even less in the future. Apple is a global corporation and one must take a larger worldview, and not have blinders just on the United States. If you were an AAPL shareholder, you might understand this.
It is foolish to fixate on U.S. domestic sales activity for large multinational corporations.
i worry that the heavy mix of international sales will negatively effect their margins due to currency flux. hopefully the market will handle that well. they must know by now it's going to happen, right? must be priced into the stock already.
i worry that the heavy mix of international sales will negatively effect their margins due to currency flux. hopefully the market will handle that well. they must know by now it's going to happen, right? must be priced into the stock already.
No need to worry. We all know that the quarterly results on 1/27 will be spun into a negative by the jerk punditry/analyst cadre and AAPL will drop. You can take that to the bank.
They are caught up, eh? Time to introduce the iPhone 6S.