iPhone 5 Release Date: More Delays Expected Compared to iPhone 4S
Supplies of Apple's anticipated iPhone 5 are being exhuasted.
On Friday, pre-orders began for the must have gadget and Apple sold out within an hour of opening up the sale. Companies such as AT&T and Verizon followed Apple and ran out of their inventory as the day progressed.
Delivery dates for iPhone 5 have been pushed back by a few weeks. As the hours progressed so did the shipping times as consumers hungry for the new iPhone stampeded virtual storefronts. The one week deliveries are gone and now companies like AT&T have pushed out their own shipping dates to between September 28 and October 5.
Supplies have been quickly exhausted through the nine first wave countries Apple will introduce the iPhone 5, which includes the U.S., U.K, Canada, France, Germany and Japan.
So how does this compare to the previous release of last year's Apple iPhone 4S? According to some analysts, the quick pre-sale exhaustion of iPhone inventory is significantly higher this time around then it was in the year past.
Just like iPhone 5, the pre-order supply of iPhone 4S's was exhausted on the first day, but the newest version ran out in the fastest time yet.
Brian White, of Topeka Capital Markets, commented on the situation saying: "This appears to be well above demand for the iPhone 4S last October."
The sales for the new phone have been estimated by White of the first three days at a "conservative" 5.5 million where last year pre-order sales for iPhone 4S reached 3 million in the same time frame.
Further delays are to be expected as AT&T and Verizon had to put their shipments on hold leading to three and four week shipping delays for the previous generation phone.
The growing trend of lines outside of Apple stores around the world is almost guaranteed as people choose to wait on their feet when the phone is released on September 21.
