iPhone X delivery times fall to within one week in US

After a rocky start marked by a quick initial sellout and lingering supply issues, Apple is quickly catching up with iPhone X demand, with current U.S. delivery estimates pegging ship times at six business days.

All iPhone X models up for sale on Apple's online store are showing a common delivery date of Dec. 8, down from an estimate of one to two weeks logged last week. A week prior to that, Apple was quoting shipping lead times of two to three weeks.

According to reports, Apple has been working with its manufacturing partners to clear bottlenecks holding up production of its most advanced iPhone device to date.

In a note to investors last week, KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said supply chain improvements were to thank for Apple's improved iPhone X ship times, specifically a diversification of LCP LTE antenna orders and higher yields of iPhone's TrueDepth dot projector. Previous reports blamed iPhone X manufacturing holdups on hardware associated with the complex TrueDepth camera, a cutting-edge depth-sensing array fabricated from highly sophisticated — and highly sensitive — components.

With ample supply of critical parts, Apple partner Foxconn is producing between 450,000 to 550,000 iPhone X units per day, up from 50,000 to 150,000, Kuo said. The rapid ramp-up is expected to drive an increase in fourth quarter shipments, some 10 to 20 percent higher than previous forecasts.

Apple's latest iPhone X supply revision brings shipments well within a week for the first time since the handset went up for preorder in October. A crush of initial orders led to a stockout in just ten minutes, while continued demand pushed deliveries out past a month. At its peak, iPhone X ship-by estimates were sitting at 5 to 6 weeks.

While online order ship-by times are improving, in-store supply is still severely constrained. Spot checks of brick-and-mortar Apple Stores located in major metropolitan areas show all iPhone X models as out of stock.

20 Comments

DJM1740 6 comments · 7 Years

About 6 years ago

I ordered one Thanksgiving morning and the expected ship date was December 3-8. Quickly it turned into November 28 with expected delivery December 5. Now it’s on its final leg, delivery scheduled for tomorrow (Dec. 1).

I’ll end up receiving it a week before the original delivery date.

And yet yet it seems like the local Apple stores can’t get them in stock.

john.b 2733 comments · 16 Years

Still waiting for the Apple Store to stock the unlocked iPhone X. :-/

realwarder 134 comments · 13 Years

john.b said:

Still waiting for the Apple Store to stock the unlocked iPhone X. :-/

Yes, me too.

tenchi211 95 comments · 16 Years

DJM1740 said:

I ordered one Thanksgiving morning and the expected ship date was December 3-8. Quickly it turned into November 28 with expected delivery December 5. Now it’s on its final leg, delivery scheduled for tomorrow (Dec. 1).

I’ll end up receiving it a week before the original delivery date.

And yet yet it seems like the local Apple stores can’t get them in stock.

I ordered mine the same day, with the same info as you. I thought it was coming on Tuesday of next week, so I had UPS change my delivery destination so I could stop off at a nearby UPS store to pick it up! Turns out that it is scheduled to be delivered this Friday! Still works out for me because I'm off that day, so I'll be able to pick it up early and have all day to play around with it! I've checked all this week with my local Apple Store, and they have been getting stock in early in the day, but it sells out by the time I get off work. It seems that they do receive stock every day, but it just sells out quickly.

soundvision 174 comments · 13 Years

john.b said:

Still waiting for the Apple Store to stock the unlocked iPhone X. :-/

I just bought my business partner a full priced, unlocked Verizon model and he popped his ATT SIM card in. Unlike a few weeks ago, you can now buy an iPhone at the Apple Store without connecting a carrier. You still need to choose the Verizon model, but nothing else needs to be done after purchase besides popping in your SIM.