Apple catches up with iPhone 5s demand, achieves full availability at its stores
Apple appears to have completely caught up with consumer demand for its flagship iPhone 5s, with a new survey of the company's retail stores finding all models completely in stock at all locations.
An Apple Store grand opening in October. Credit: AppleInsider reader Ryan.
The research team at investment firm Piper Jaffray has conducted bi-weekly polls of 60 U.S. Apple Stores. They found that as of last week, all models of the iPhone 5s were 100 percent in stock at all locations polled.
That availability even includes unlocked iPhone 5s models, which can be purchased at full unsubsidized pricing starting at $649 for the 16-gigabyte entry-level capacity.
Analyst Gene Munster said the survey shows that supply of the iPhone 5s has improved "dramatically" from just two weeks ago, when only 24 percent of Apple's retail stores were found to have all iPhone models in stock. In contrast, just 8 percent of Apple's stores had full iPhone availability at the start of October.
"We believe Apple has caught up to demand, which we had expected ahead of the core holiday period," Munster wrote. "In reflecting on the supply for the 5S product launch overall, we believe that net-net Apple has done a better job in supplying stores with phones proportional to demand."
Source: Piper Jaffray.
Complete retail availability of the iPhone 5s comes as online shipping times have also improved to just one to three days for all models. Shipping times have expedited quickly, improving from three to five days just a few weeks ago.
Since its launch in September, the iPhone 5s has faced supply constraints as Apple was reportedly affected by low yields of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. Reports from Apple's supply chain suggested the company was having difficulty ramping up production to its usual levels.
Supply of the iPhone 5s was said to be plentiful over the Black Friday holiday shopping weekend at both Apple's own retail stores, U.S. carrier partners AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, and resellers such as Best Buy and Walmart.
Piper Jaffray has predicted that iPhone sales will grow 16 percent year over year in the current December quarter. Munster has also forecast that iPhone sales in the March 2014 quarter will grow 12 percent.
An Apple Store grand opening in October. Credit: AppleInsider reader Ryan.
The research team at investment firm Piper Jaffray has conducted bi-weekly polls of 60 U.S. Apple Stores. They found that as of last week, all models of the iPhone 5s were 100 percent in stock at all locations polled.
That availability even includes unlocked iPhone 5s models, which can be purchased at full unsubsidized pricing starting at $649 for the 16-gigabyte entry-level capacity.
Analyst Gene Munster said the survey shows that supply of the iPhone 5s has improved "dramatically" from just two weeks ago, when only 24 percent of Apple's retail stores were found to have all iPhone models in stock. In contrast, just 8 percent of Apple's stores had full iPhone availability at the start of October.
"We believe Apple has caught up to demand, which we had expected ahead of the core holiday period," Munster wrote. "In reflecting on the supply for the 5S product launch overall, we believe that net-net Apple has done a better job in supplying stores with phones proportional to demand."
Source: Piper Jaffray.
Complete retail availability of the iPhone 5s comes as online shipping times have also improved to just one to three days for all models. Shipping times have expedited quickly, improving from three to five days just a few weeks ago.
Since its launch in September, the iPhone 5s has faced supply constraints as Apple was reportedly affected by low yields of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. Reports from Apple's supply chain suggested the company was having difficulty ramping up production to its usual levels.
Supply of the iPhone 5s was said to be plentiful over the Black Friday holiday shopping weekend at both Apple's own retail stores, U.S. carrier partners AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, and resellers such as Best Buy and Walmart.
Piper Jaffray has predicted that iPhone sales will grow 16 percent year over year in the current December quarter. Munster has also forecast that iPhone sales in the March 2014 quarter will grow 12 percent.
Comments
I knew just from the headline that this would be from Gene Munster. He's about as accurate as DigiTimes. Don't forget he's the one who claimed 3.5-4 million of the 9M iPhone opening weekend sales were 5C "channel fill". And then sites like Business Insider ran with it claiming Apple's "real" sales figures were only 5-6M. Munster is not worthy of space on any Apple news site.
I don't know... when it comes to store sales, Piper and Munster are the actually on the ground monitoring sales. Gene's problem is when he needs to extrapolate to world wide sales and costs. I would take his view of US physical store sales and inventory as pretty solid.
Not a moment too soon either. It would have been disastrous for them to not have adequate iPhone 5S supply over the holiday season.
"This is just irresponsible!"
"They should have anticipated the exact level of demand and ensured that everyone gets an iPhone!"
"I have to wait a week for an iPhone. This is bullshit. I'm moving to Android."
"No wonder they're losing the market share battle! No one can get iPhones the very second they conceive of possibly thinking about maybe wanting one!"
When Apple supply meets demand:
"Nobody wants iPhones anymore."
"Now everyone has an iPhone. This is bullshit. I'm moving to Android."
"iOS is stale and boring!"
And inexplicably ... "Tim Cook should be fired! He's not an ideas man!"
I'd use a different word for that, but yeah, 'could've been rolled out better'.
I wish them well with the new MP!
Add a fifth: "Tim Cook finally may have learned how to do his job and is not bungling this rollout like he did the relatively easy iMac screen lamination fiasco last year. But just to show I don't trust him, I'm going to remind everybody that he's on my watch list for a few more years."
As always, wait a little over a month to get the one you want......and get the first batch bugs out of the way.
I'd use a different word for that, but yeah, 'could've been rolled out better'.
I wish them well with the new MP!
After reading that definition I still would have called it a fiasco.
PC strength had been waning considerably at that time and the last thing that Apple needed was to not be able to push out the Macs that had been promised.
When your competition is on the ropes it's not the time to go to your corner.
At the time, the rollout was a complete failure and I'd say it was embarrassing... but that's my opinion.
I knew just from the headline that this would be from Gene Munster. He's about as accurate as DigiTimes. Don't forget he's the one who claimed 3.5-4 million of the 9M iPhone opening weekend sales were 5C "channel fill". And then sites like Business Insider ran with it claiming Apple's "real" sales figures were only 5-6M. Munster is not worthy of space on any Apple news site.
Did anyone ever disprove his numbers concerning channel fill?
I guess I can get my 5S now.
Me too.
Tell us WHY the iMac had production problems and maybe your scolding will not seem like such hollow bloviation.
Enough of this BS.
Enough of this BS.
"BS," now let me see. Does that mean "Bettering Society," "Beautiful & Sweet" or perhaps something less thoughtful about all those drudging away in those huge factories in China.
I can remember, just barely, the dull old days of Eisenhower and the Fifties. The era had its problems, but there was far more civility and far less obsession with bodily secretions back then. Some people, it appears, never get over the trauma of potty training. To their dying day, they're troubled with a potty mouth. Everything is BS this and S___t that.
I guess it beats thinking and learning to express yourself well.
So stop buying from Apple, then. You clearly refuse to educate yourself or care about the truth in any capacity, so either be quiet or act on your own “beliefs” and stop being a hypocrite. We’ve been over this in countless threads. Read those. Learn. Then come back and stop spewing nonsense.
I ordered my iMac in November and had to wait until January to receive it but I wouldn't call that a fiasco in and of itself. Did they make promises in ship times that weren't met? I seem to recall that my order was delivered within the promised time frame but I honestly can't recall.
I also don't recall any evidence that clearly showed this was a display lamination issue. Why couldn't it be a friction weld issue or even an issue with getting the appropriate components, like Apple having to reject a huge batch of discreet GPUs or display panels from a supplier? If they shipped hundreds of thousands of faulty product that broke down or were sub-quality within weeks or months of being used then I'd call that a fiasco, but not simply because of a delay over what we are used to with Apple products being available almost immediately upon announcement.