O2 UK warns of weeks-long iPhone 3G shortage ahead

[AppleInsider]

In a cautionary message to potential iPhone buyers, Britain's O2 says a rush of customers that brought down its online orders for iPhone 3G is a sign of a looming supply crunch that could last for weeks.

The complete message from O2 Sales Director Stephen Shurrock, obtained by AppleInsider, apologizes for the surge that knocked out its systems for ordering the Apple device and that it was the ratio of demand to actually supply that was to blame.

The company's early registration page wasn't just a notification service but a way passing on demand estimates to Apple, according to Shurrock: the users signed up at the site gave O2 reasons to ask for larger iPhone orders ahead of July 11th. With the number of registrants quickly spiraling out of control, however, it soon became clear that there would be many more orders than iPhones once advance purchases were an option.

"To put it in context we had over 200,000 people expressing interest and only a very small proportion of that number of devices available," he says. "Faced with this dilemma, we made it clear in the communications that to be fair to all customers the orders would be managed on a first come first served basis, as stock was limited. The response was so great that the online store completely sold out of iPhones within just a few hours."

Even with 250 times the performance capacity and backups in place, the online system collapsed after it received as many as 13,000 orders per second. "We just weren’t prepared for this unprecedented level of demand," Shurrock adds. "No website is."

Still, actual in-store supply may raise the most concern for O2 subscribers. Although the July 11th retail debut the next best chance to get an iPhone, each shop will have just a "few dozen" phones and is likely to run out quickly; with new stock coming in only once a week, the UK company isn't certain that it can accommodate everyone on launch.

"We are confident that over time we will start to get sufficient volume to meet demand, but it is likely that stock will be in very short supply for some weeks to come," Shurrock says.

The supply problems online and at retail are largely credited to the 22-nation simultaneous launch of the iPhone, which O2 says will spread stock thin. However, Apple retail head Ron Johnson has tried to allay concerns and says his company's goal is to always have stock -- which O2's Shurrock says will be more prevalent at Apple's own retail locations.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[othello]

interestingly, O2 are not even taking advanced orders at the moment. i tried to buy some iphones on a business tariff and i was told to wait until thursday.

[walshbj]

Anyone who shorted aapl feeling a little twitchy this week??

[cameronj]

Originally Posted by walshbj

Anyone who shorted aapl feeling a little twitchy this week??

Buy the rumor, sell the news.

I'm long Apple stock, but I'd be pretty surprised if it closed Friday higher than it is today.

[walshbj]

Originally Posted by cameronj

Buy the rumor, sell the news.

I'm long Apple stock, but I'd be pretty surprised if it closed Friday higher than it is today.

I'd say you're probably right. The lead up to the next quarterly earnings call will get it back in the $190 range though. July 21.

[quinney]

Even diverting all the iPhones from Canada won't be able to satisfy
that much demand, if it is for real.

[nvidia2008]

Originally Posted by quinney

Even diverting all the iPhones from Canada won't be able to satisfy
that much demand, if it is for real.

The Canadian iPhones won't even make a dent in the global iPhone 3G scene.

[zeasar]

Originally Posted by quinney

Even diverting all the iPhones from Canada won't be able to satisfy
that much demand, if it is for real.

Nah, Apple is diverting some of the iPhones from UK as well since O2 screwed its customers by holding back on the PAYG option. If O2 was to offer PAYG along with the launch, we could expect a lot more supply from Apple to meet the much higher demand.

[SpinDrift]

Originally Posted by zeasar

Nah, Apple is diverting some of the iPhones from UK as well since O2 screwed its customers by holding back on the PAYG option. If O2 was to offer PAYG along with the launch, we could expect a lot more supply from Apple to meet the much higher demand.

Where did you get that information from?

[nvidia2008]

Please be informed to all UK customers. PAYG (prepaid) phones will not be available for sale anywhere in the UK on Friday July 11. This has been confirmed by the O2 official website.

Additionally, if you are queuing up at an Apple Store in the UK, possibly O2/Carphone, you should be prepared to sign a new contract with a credit card, ID, and perhaps even something with your address on it.

[Peruchito]

any brits want to buy iphones for us poor canadians?.. actually just tell O2 to come to canada.

[ajprice]

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

you should be prepared to sign a new contract with a credit card, ID, and perhaps even something with your address on it.[/B][/SIZE]

That is normal for any UK phone contract.

[nvidia2008]

Originally Posted by ajprice

That is normal for any UK phone contract.

Ah good. the apple store guy i was speaking to was just a little concerned a lot of people may be expecting just to buy the phone first like the last time and then activate later at home, etc. It seems Apple Store UK retail will be doing in-house activation as well.

[nvidia2008]

Originally Posted by zeasar

Nah, Apple is diverting some of the iPhones from UK as well since O2 screwed its customers by holding back on the PAYG option. If O2 was to offer PAYG along with the launch, we could expect a lot more supply from Apple to meet the much higher demand.

"Diverted" is so interesting. I can imagine a big jumbo cargo plane full of iPhones en route to England from Shanghai.

Halfway over Greenland, Steve pops up on the screen, Mission Impossible style. "Briefing from HQ". Recorded message from Steve Jobs.

"Boys, I got a course correction for you. Just to be safe, I got a little someone to help make sure them iPhone3Gs are diverted to New York...". "You may know him from that little movie a while back... He's taking a break from fighting terrorists and techno-crazed megalomaniacs on a special personal assignment for me... Stevie J, signing off"

<snap crackle, sonic BOOOOM!! .ShhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhCrarhrpwhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh>

"No one in America is going to go without an iPhone 3G. Not on my watch!" F*k those weird speaking people in that England place. These are for MY country or my name ain't Tony Stark!!! Let's go boys!!! Oh, and put aside a white 16gb one for me.



<snap crackle, casshhshshhshhhhhhhhhh phoooooooooooooooooom sheeeeyyeyeyeyuuuuu>

[spacedesign911]

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

"Diverted" is so interesting. I can imagine a big jumbo cargo plane full of iPhones en route to England from Shanghai.

Halfway over Greenland, Steve pops up on the screen, Mission Impossible style. "Briefing from HQ". Recorded message from Steve Jobs.

"Boys, I got a course correction for you. Just to be safe, I got a little someone to help make sure them iPhone3Gs are diverted to New York...". "You may know him from that little movie a while back... He's taking a break from fighting terrorists and techno-crazed megalomaniacs on a special personal assignment for me... Stevie J, signing off"

<snap crackle, sonic BOOOOM!! .ShhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhCrarhrpwhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh>

"No one in America is going to go without an iPhone 3G. Not on my watch!" F*k those weird speaking people in that England place. These are for MY country or my name ain't Tony Stark!!! Let's go boys!!! Oh, and put aside a white 16gb one for me.



<snap crackle, casshhshshhshhhhhhhhhh phoooooooooooooooooom sheeeeyyeyeyeyuuuuu>

Classic post, infact so funny I signed up to say so! One eight letter word, produced the above fruit that fell on this tread, and a picture to boot, I hope your a high powered high paid creative in one of those big ad agencys, you know the ones with the foxy receptionist behind a big round glass desk........

[nvidia2008]

Originally Posted by spacedesign911

...you know the ones with the foxy receptionist behind a big round glass desk........

LOL Thanks. No, my creativity applied to getting paid = fail. I used to do a tiny bit of advertising work long ago. I think the girl you mention above is Shirley. Unfortunately, she's taken.

[Shaun, UK]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Even with 250 times the performance capacity and backups in place, the online system collapsed after it received as many as 13,000 orders per second. "We just weren’t prepared for this unprecedented level of demand," Shurrock adds. "No website is."

According to my maths that's 48 million iPhone orders per hour!

Yeah right. That's about the entire adult population of the UK.

Is this a typo or something??

[Shaun, UK]

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

Please be informed to all UK customers. PAYG (prepaid) phones will not be available for sale anywhere in the UK on Friday July 11. This has been confirmed by the O2 official website.

Additionally, if you are queuing up at an Apple Store in the UK, possibly O2/Carphone, you should be prepared to sign a new contract with a credit card, ID, and perhaps even something with your address on it.

I was gutted when O2 announced this as I was intending to buy a PAYG version. Now they say we will have to wait until Christmas time for the PAYG option.

[JoeDRC]

Went into my local O2 store today. Basically one of the sales assistants told me that you've got a better chance of getting your hands on an iPhone if the O2 or Carphone Warehouse store is located in an enclosed shopping centre, some aren't able to open at the set 8:02am time but will instead open at the regular 9:00am.
They're in the dark as much we are in terms of whether there'll be the white 16GB version available on Friday.

Also, I don't know whether this has been mentioned in another thread but, you'll need proof of I.D (Drivers license etc.) And a debit card so they can check you are who you say you are and to set up payments. And if your buying the handset you need to use the same debit card. No instore activation is required which is good!

[nvidia2008]

Originally Posted by Shaun, UK

According to my maths that's 48 million iPhone orders per hour! Yeah right. That's about the entire adult population of the UK.
Is this a typo or something??

Obviously the website was so crap it only handled about a few minutes before it tanked big time.

Probably started out a few minutes with a few hundred, then another few minutes of a few thousand, another few minutes. Boom! DEAD server.

[nvidia2008]

Originally Posted by JoeDRC

Went into my local O2 store today. Basically one of the sales assistants told me that you've got a better chance of getting your hands on an iPhone if the O2 or Carphone Warehouse store is located in an enclosed shopping centre, some aren't able to open at the set 8:02am time but will instead open at the regular 9:00am.
They're in the dark as much we are in terms of whether there'll be the white 16GB version available on Friday.

Also, I don't know whether this has been mentioned in another thread but, you'll need proof of I.D (Drivers license etc.) And a debit card so they can check you are who you say you are and to set up payments. And if your buying the handset you need to use the same debit card. No instore activation is required which is good!

Cool thanks for info. This corroborates with Apple Store Regent Street information - see my post above.

Although, Regent Street staff did not give a specific time yet.

[Marvin]

Originally Posted by Shaun, UK

According to my maths that's 48 million iPhone orders per hour!

Yeah right. That's about the entire adult population of the UK.

Is this a typo or something??

That would only be the peak rate. The total of 200,000 shows that there couldn't have been 13,000 requests per second for long. I know a few people who sat and submitted the forms 10 times or so each and this is what causes the problems. Hype and greed. No one wants to miss out and few want to wait in line.

The same thing happens on forums, if say AI gets busy, people just keep clicking refresh and make the problem worse.

I partly wonder if there's some level of marketing going into this as well though. It's a typical marketing ploy. Make people believe the demand is high and it garners interest with people who otherwise wouldn't really bother. If lots of people really want something then it must be good. At the end of the day, it's a great device but that's all it is. Nothing to get irrational about. If you get one on Friday or next month, you'll get the same experience.

[JJGEight]

I spoke to a very informative O2 salesman today. He said that Carphone warehouse shops are only get about 20 iPhone's each about 15 8GBs and 5 15GBs. However most O2 stores are expected to get around 100 iPhone's. He said there should be 80 8GBs and 20 16GBs.

I also found out that some Carphone Warehouse shops have got reservation lists. All of them are full in my area which is a bit of a shame .

[adl999]

Just got a text from O2, with a link to the following message:

http://shop.o2.co.uk/info/

Summary

Thank you for your interest in iPhone 3G. We are experiencing unprecedented demand for the device and whilst we are confident that all customers who want iPhone 3G will get one by the end of this summer, initial supply is limited and will be for some weeks. Here is what you need to know:

O2 and Carphone Warehouse (CPW) stores will have limited numbers of iPhone 3G this Friday 11 July.

On average, we will only have a few dozen iPhone 3Gs per store (some stores more, some stores less, dependant upon store size so we expect to sell out quickly). Sales of iPhone 3G will be limited to one per customer and two for business customers.

Some O2 stores will open at 8.02am on Friday, others a bit later. Find out more

If you do go into an O2 store you will need 2 forms of identification, a valid credit or debit card and proof of address. If you are new to O2 you will also need to pass a credit check if you sign up for an iPhone 3G contract. The average sales transaction processing time will be 20 minutes.

Apple will be selling iPhone 3Gs in their stores, but please note that existing O2 customers can only upgrade in an O2 or CPW store.

We are working closely with Apple to get additional iPhone 3Gs. These will be coming in on a weekly basis. We'll keep you posted on specific details by updating this web page regularly.

We are currently out of stock of iPhone 3Gs via our on-line store, we'll update through www.o2.co.uk when more information becomes available.

If you have an existing iPhone you can still enjoy many of the new features by upgrading your software to version 2.0 from 11 July through iTunes.

We are sorry that we can't meet all demand as quickly as we'd like but we're sure that when you get your new iPhone 3G you'll agree it's been worth the wait.

[adl999]

Note the line:

...you can still enjoy many of the new features by updating your software to version 2.0 from 11 July through iTunes

Is this the first place the date of the availability of the 2.0 update has been confirmed?