AppleInsider Staff
As has become tradition, Apple on Thursday took its online store offline as the company prepares for an inevitable crush of iPhone X preorders, scheduled to go live a minute after midnight on Friday, Pacific time.
Apple's online store is down for maintenance ahead of the big day. As usual, the website now displays the familiar "We'll be back" message accomplished in the company's bespoke San Francisco font.
The iPhone X represents the first true iPhone redesign in three years, boasting an edge-to-edge 5.8-inch Super Retina OLED display, TrueDepth camera, A11 Bionic chip, upgraded cameras and more. Highlighting the feature list is the depth-sensing TrueDepth camera system, which powers Face ID face-based authentication, Animoji animated emoji characters and Portrait photography capabilities.
Inside, a new A11 Bionic processor incorporates two high performance cores to deliver speeds Apple claims are 25 percent faster than last year's A10. Four high-efficiency cores help save energy when running less processor intensive apps. For the first time, Apple is integrating an in house-designed GPU into its mobile processor that is said to deliver a 30 percent speed boost over previous silicon, helpful in crunching numbers for augmented reality apps.
The A11 Bionic was custom designed for iPhone X, as the chip's dual-core neural engine chews through machine learning tasks required to facilitate features like Face ID.
In terms of finishes, Apple is keeping it simple this year. The 5.8-inch iPhone X is available in two colors — silver and Space Gray — and two storage configurations. A 64 GB version retails for $999, while the more capacious 256 GB option sells for $1,149.
As can be expected, demand for the device is high. Rumors from Apple's supply chain suggest an initial stock shortage, with some estimates tallying only 2 to 3 million units available at launch. For comparison, Apple sold more than 10 million iPhone 6 series devices in three days.
Customers looking to get an iPhone X launch day need to be quick on the draw once preorders go live tonight. To help prospective buyers get a leg up on competition, AppleInsider created a preorder guide that offers tips and tricks for scoring your very own copy.
Apple is expected to bring its store back online at 12:01 a.m. Pacific, 3:01 a.m. Eastern, when the company activates its iPhone X preorder system.
Christine McKee
Thomas Sibilly
51 Comments
And the countdown begins...
Apple needs to get its act out of the 1990s on this. There is no need to disable the entire store to update a product line (or perhaps just a few models in this case).
Anyone taking book on how long it takes to sell out Nov 3 deliveries? Make the o/u 2 minutes. Where you place your bet?