Since its initial launch in late September, iPhone 5 supply has been extremely limited. But Apple must have gotten past whatever production issue it was having, because shipping times for the handset recently started showing just one week out.
And apparently, availability is looking even better at Apple's brick and mortar locations. According to a new poll conducted by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, a number of Apple Stores now have nearly every model of the iPhone 5 on hand...
Demand for Apple's latest handset continues to outstrip supply, but availability has been improving lately. Throughout September, Apple's online store consistently quoted a 3-4 week shipping estimate for the handset before improving to 2-3 weeks mid-November. And as the handset became easier to find in Apple's brick-and-mortar stores, some international online Apple Stores today updated iPhone 5 shipping times to just one week.
This bodes well for Apple's holiday sales because it indicates the company is catching up to iPhone 5 demand. Apple is expected to soon roll out the device to additional countries, per its promise to make the iPhone 5 available in about a hundred countries and through 240 carriers by year's end...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX1eTBeWoyw
A quick side-by-side video MacWeekend.com shot early morning on Black Friday at Lone Tree's Park Meadow Mall where both Apple and Microsoft have their respective retail stores shows one is packed and the other is not. Apple's place is much smaller versus Microsoft's so it feels busier, of course. And over at the Apple Store in the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster and his crew counted heads at both Apple's store and the Microsoft Store directly across the hall.
Although non-scientific, their comparison survey tells us that shoppers picked up nearly five times as many items per hour at the Apple store. We already knew the iPad dominated mobile shopping on Black Friday. And if you ask kids, Apple's tablet is the #1 item on their holiday wish list. Looks like Apple's gonna own Christmas this year...
Apple launched its first retail store(s) on May 19, 2001. It was the fruition of Steve Jobs' vision to improve Mac sales by giving consumers a top-notch shopping experience. Several analysts, of course, predicted the failure of the chain.
But as we all know, Jobs proved everyone wrong. Apple Stores have since exploded, and there are now close to 400 of them around the world, making more money per square foot than high-end jewelry stores. And here's how they did it...
With the holidays upon us and Chinese plants working around the clock churning out Apple handsets (Foxbots should help automate assembly in the near future), no wonder analysts recently started seeing iPhone 5 inventory at Apple’s brick-and-mortar stores improving and at their highest level yet for AT&T, Verizon and Sprint customers. This week, availability of online orders on Apple's web store also has improved as a result...
Cody told you earlier this morning that U.S. carrier Sprint started selling Apple's iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad with Retina display in its retail stores. Not to be outdone by the nation's #3 telco, carriers AT&T and Verizon announced that both Wi-Fi and cellular versions of the two tablets are now available across their retail and online stores in the United States. Additionally, we are hearing that Best Buy has the tablets and will begin selling them later today. Both carriers are offering the iPad mini and the fourth-gen full-size iPad with or without shared data service, with Sprint of course having the upper hand with its unlimited data offering (and limited 4G coverage).
The devices have also arrived in Apple's retail outlets. Some customers who pre-ordered their units saw their shipment delivered as early as yesterday or are seeing their packages out for delivery...
It appears Apple's marquee products - the iPhone 5 and iPad mini - are just hitting their stride. After initial questions over suppliers and build quality prompted sputtering sales, demand for the two devices is expected to skyrocket over the next two quarters. After talking with Apple suppliers, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty told investors Thursday that she believes the Cupertino, California company will beat Wall Street expectations, fueled by lower-priced parts, the growth of China and the addition of upcoming Apple Stores in Brazil, a first for the country...
Have you tired of waiting in line at Apple's Fifth Avenue store? You may want to check out JFK Airport next time. Apparently, two thieves who wanted an iPad mini took the direct route, driving away with $1.5 million worth of iPad minis Monday night from the New York City airport. The snatch-and-grab happened at the same cargo area made famous in the movie "GoodFellas." Although the crooks snatched two pallets with 3,600 minis from China and destined for U.S. buyers, they left three more loads likely to have held even more of Apple's newest tablets...
Making good on its promise, Apple has started stocking its U.S. retail outlets with cellular versions of the fourth-generation iPad with Retina display. According to web reports, Apple yesterday instructed its retail staff to stock these units and to wait until Mothership instructs them to begin sales because a launch date has not yet been communicated.
By all accounts, the company should officially start selling these tomorrow, November 16. In a media release announcing opening weekend sales of three million iPads, Apple noted that cellular versions of both the iPad mini and the fourth-generation model will be available in the US on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon "in a few weeks"...
Next time you are in an Apple Store, look down. You are standing in the most profitable real estate of all retail. For the second year in a row, Apple Stores rank #1 with the highest sales per square feet, once again beating Tiffany for the top spot.
According to Retail Sales' ranking of U.S. chain stores, Apple Stores pull in $6,050 per square foot compared to Tiffany's $3,017. Apple's brick-and-mortar locations see 100 million visitors every three months, with each Apple Store visitor leaving $45...
Availability of the iPhone 5 is finally improving as Apple, its suppliers and contract manufacturers bind forces to improve manufacturing yield rates. When Apple in September started accepting online pre-orders for the device, shipping times quoted on the online Apple Store fell to 3-4 weeks within 45 minutes.
Availability would not improve until today. Now, after admitting to falling behind the iPhone 5 demand, Apple's contract manufacturer Foxconn has been hard at work with suppliers like Sharp to remove bottlenecks. Analysts who last week surveyed over a hundred Apple Stores, found out the device could be consistently available within 2 to 3 weeks.
We're happy to report that today, estimated shipping times for new iPhone 5 orders on the online Apple store dropped to 2-3 weeks, another sign of the iPhone maker and its supply chain slowly beginning to catch up to strong demand for the popular device...
While Apple offers unlocked iPhone 5s in Canada and other countries, it has yet to give buyers inside the US that option. So unless you go through a third party vendor, you can't get an unlocked iPhone 5 here in the States.
That could be changing in the near future though. Purported prices for unlocked versions of the new handset have been discovered hidden on Apple's US website, which could mean that they're preparing to roll them out...