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back to article Apple 'hasn't really run out of iPhone 5s AT ALL'

In a revelation that seems set to shake the technology world to its very foundations, a clandestine Register source has informed us that secretive shiny-stuff behemoth Apple could easily supply more than enough iPhone 5s to meet initial demand: but that it deliberately chose not to. Our source, known to us only by the codename …

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          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Is this supposed to be humorous?

            "If only there was a system where we could select what sections of the site we want to read, that way, us boring farts can never see the Bootnotes section ever again,"

            There is, El Reg couldn't afford to license the patent from ... *coughs*

            2 1
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is this supposed to be humorous?

      As someone who sells the fruity kit, I know Apple don't like giving their resellers much stock. We managed to convince our higher ups to let us receive the stock directly from Apple and we still run out fairly frequently.

      Still, that's nothing on the cost they charge us to remove the displays if they decide to stop dealing with us.

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    3. John Bailey
      Reply Icon
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Is this supposed to be humorous?

      "It's certainly not accurate. Is it even news-worthy?"

      And how would you know?

      "I'm not fanboi, "

      And I'm not a racist.

      I however, am not following my statement with some drivel that contradicts the prior statement quite conclusively.

      It's a bit if fun. Humour. A reaction to the ever present fanboy hoard who are seizing on every little sound bite and broadcasting the "truth" to the world. I saw on a gadget blog a little while ago, AT&T is claiming that they have more pre orders than they had for the last iPhone.

      Number.. Sorry.. Can't say.

      Time period? Nope.

      Area of calculation.. Classified.

      So in other words.. meaningless.

      Unless one is a fanboy, in which case, it is clear proof that the fifth coming is even more shiny and magical and positively dripping in unicorn emissions.

      This story.. Funny, baiting the fanboys, and actually.. quite plausible. Some of the stuff I've seen reported from the rallies is similar in factual content to a BNP manifesto. So being economical with supply for pre orders deliberately is not in the least unbelievable.

      Mine's the one with the funny looking phone I found in the pub last week.

      9 1
      1. Arctic fox
        Reply Icon

        Re: "Mine's the one with the funny looking phone I found in the pub last week"

        I'd be careful about that if I were you. You could end up with your house being ransacked by a team that includes people from A Famous Mobile Phone Company pretending to be police officers.

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        1. John Bailey
          Reply Icon

          Re: "Mine's the one with the funny looking phone I found in the pub last week"

          God point.. I'd better hide if after I see who is at the door.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A man down the pub

    At least this time they resisted the urge to leave one in a pub to get accidentally found by someone who just so happenes to have an apple friendly tech blog. And then very publicly threaten to take them to court to get it back, while actually just paying them for the write up.

    Oh right, they only do that when it actually has new features, or some WOW factor.

    ....

    Or at least that is how it seems, allegedly, in my opinion, etc..etc.. (don't take me to court I can't afford it.)

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    1. Dave 126 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: A man down the pub

      I think the person who found it sold it to a tech blog. Your deliberate leak theory (in the finest tradition of Yes, Minister) would be plausible, except for the bad publicity Apple got for sending private security staff round to search a citizen's house whilst the uniformed cops stood outside.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Megaphone

    Didn't people learn ANYTHING from Nintendo Wii?

    If you fool idiotic consumers that something is desirable, because it's sold out, then the morons will queue up for any old crap.

    7 3
    1. Lee Dowling Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Didn't people learn ANYTHING from Nintendo Wii?

      Strange. I'm pretty sure there were at least 5 years where you could just walk into any store at any time and buy a Wii. Even at Christmas (though it became more tricky, it was certainly nowhere near impossible).

      Maybe for the FIRST Christmas, but that people were still buying them years later, even after lots of other competitors were released and most people had one, might just point at them actually being a popular device rather than some propaganda sale.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Stop

        Re: Didn't people learn ANYTHING from Nintendo Wii?

        You only have to kick the hype train off, it will roll for years before braindead consumers work out they were fooled.

        The Wii-U will flop as consumers will vow to to be conned again in the same way by Nintendo.

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  4. Annihilator
    Happy

    "So much to do at Cartmanland, but you... can't... come (especially you, Stan and Kyle)"

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0705906/

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    1. JohnG
      Reply Icon

      South Park

      I thought you were going to reference the episode when Cartman can't wait for a new Nintendo and freezes himself but ends up way too far into the future.....

      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0890648/

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  5. Mondo the Magnificent
    Devil

    *Yawn*

    How can a single product fuel so much speculation, both fact, fiction and sheer bullshit?

    Sadly it's coming through so fast and thick, anyone with half a brain just ingores it...

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: *Yawn*

      "Sadly it's coming through so fast and thick, anyone with half a brain just thinks PPPFT! iDEVICE and ingores it..."

      0 1
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LOL

    Whilst the article is obviously taking the piss, there is obviously some truth here. There is no way they can be short at launch unless they want to be.

    15 1
    1. Tom 38
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Re: LOL

      Apple contract manufacturing out, and can build a certain number per week - lets say 10 million - which they can then ship out worldwide.

      When they launch a new phone, this means the design has gone to the manufacturer, and they are assembling them as fast as they can. Production continues at 10 million a week, shipping new containers full of phones every week.

      After 3 weeks, they have enough stock arriving in markets to start selling them, whilst still churning em out at the factory. They have initial orders of 50M, and 20M stock, with 10M new units arriving each week.

      This means they immediately sell out, with a backlog of 3 weeks.

      Your contention is that they could avoid this "if they wanted to". To avoid this, they would need twice as much manufacturing capacity, which would be very costly, and after the initial rush of orders, they would not need anywhere near as much capacity.

      Therefore, they would have to spend an exorbitant amount of money in order to speed delivery to the early users by 2-3 weeks, and then have that expensive manufacturing capacity lie fallow until the next refresh. Plus, as has been pointed out several times, there is the cachet of desirability indicated by stock selling out.

      So yes, entirely in their hands, except they aren't morons who would bankrupt the company building unnecessary capacity.

      3 7
      1. Big_Ted
        Reply Icon
        Facepalm

        Re: LOL

        Or start manufacturing them 3 weeks earlier by stoping production of the 4S which has seen sales figures drop due to the 5 coming soon press stories....

        so no you don't need more capacity just to stop making so many of the old version which won't sale hardly at all for a few weeks until they are cheap enougth

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        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: LOL

          Tom 38 is correct. It is for much the same reason that countries who are not currently at war export arms to countries who are. If you are threatened with conflict, you want to make as many weapons as you can, as quickly as you can- without the usual regard for doing so economically. This means that after you have finished your fight, you are left with a lot of expensive production lines left over. To recoup the cost, it is necessary to sell arms to developing nations.

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      2. Stuart Gepp
        Reply Icon
        Holmes

        Re: LOL

        Maybe they could have chosen a later launch date when they had enough to meet initial demand - no extra capacity needed.

        It is marketing hype. They are within their rights to do it but the gist of the article seems pretty much spot on.

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      3. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: LOL

        Bankrupt the company?

        A company with $117 billion cash reserves.

        A product with a bill of materials around $167.

        Rrrrright.

        5 1
        1. Tom 38
          Reply Icon

          Re: LOL

          They got the cash reserves because they don't do moron things like sit on stock for 3 weeks so you can produce enough shiny for launch date, and instead spread sales over several months.

          I'm amazed some of you can tie your shoes, this is simple supply chain 101.

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          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: LOL

            ha.. brilliant stuff. Keep it up.

            0 0
      4. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: LOL

        Samsung had twice as many preorders for the S3, and they had no delivery problems at all

        10 0
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: LOL

          "Samsung had twice as many preorders for the S3, and they had no delivery problems at all"

          Apart from the cock up with the blue one you mean!

          0 0
          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: LOL

            ""Samsung had twice as many preorders for the S3, and they had no delivery problems at all"

            Apart from the cock up with the blue one you mean!"

            MMMEH!

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  7. John G Imrie
    Pint

    Dry Throat

    Have one on me

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Love the timing. At 12:09, El Reg posts this.

    At about the same time, Apple announce that they've sold over 2 million in 24 hours. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/09/17iPhone-5-Pre-Orders-Top-Two-Million-in-First-24-Hours.html

    Someone is clearly wrong, me thinks.

    2 8
    1. spiny norman
      Reply Icon
      Go

      Why is someone clearly wrong?

      They don't actually say they've sold 2 million, as in the customer has their phone and Apple has the money. It's 2 million pre-orders, which means people lying in bed at night dreaming of the happiness that will be theirs eventually.

      Which doesn't preclude Apple deliberately restricting supply, by knowingly launching before they have the volume in the shops that, based on previous launch figures, can't be that hard to predict.

      Good article actually, not only provocative and funny, but also believable.

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      1. Mark .
        Reply Icon

        Re: Why is someone clearly wrong?

        Indeed, and IIRC Samsung Galaxy S3 pre-orders were near 10 million. Plus that is just one of many Samsung models. Even if there is truth, it just biases things towards Apple, where people seem more likely to buy the latest one the moment it appears, but also, the fact that there's only one phone released a year means everyone on that platform is more likely to buy all at once. With Android, phones are released all year round, so you don't have to wait ages, then rush out and buy it.

        The flip side is that whilst Apple may do better in the "X sold in Y days", their sales do far more poorly later in the year, whilst Android phones are solid all the year round. Where's the publicity for "Apple's sales drop by a massive 10 million, whilst Samsung's rise to 50 million, now twice that of Apple's", as happened in Q2 2012?

        All the pre-order and first week stats are pretty meaningless, and it's all spin and marketing how they are used. If we care about sales, just look at the quarterly sales figures that are published (e.g., look up on Gartner). And make sure we do it every quarter, rather than just publicising it only the quarter after Apple release a new phone.

        Also consider how the media will spin Apple's sales as being great, independent of any measure of how good it really is. E.g., remember the "one million sold in 76 days" for the original Iphone? That's nothing - it's nothing now (Nokia's first WP phone managed the same sales figures, but was viewed as poor by the media!) and it was nothing back then (Nokia were selling 10-20 million Symbian smartphones a quarter). In general, it's nothing - Samsung and Nokia sell a million phones *a day*, all year round, so Apple doing it in 76 days is poor, especially when it was after a product launch that was massively hyped for months by the media. But no, despite this, "one million in 76 days" was for years hailed as some kind of almighty benchmark.

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    2. Mark .
      Reply Icon

      For comparison, Android is now at about one million smartphones per day. All Year Round.

      At first you might say, wow, now Iphone will gain at twice that rate - but this is not all year round. Firstly you've got included in that figure loads of people who have been waiting for months to order one - indeed, let's remember that rumours of the Iphone 4SS, sorry, 5, have been going in the media for a staggering 18 months now. Secondly, the evidence is that the Iphone sales are very seasonal, being high shortly after a new release, but tailing off for the rest of the year.

      Interesting how years ago, we'd hear about "Android vs Iphone" in the media, so they could say Iphone was most popular (conveniently forgetting that it was actually Symbian number one, and Blackberry number two for much of that time) - but now, you hardly ever hear about it. That wouldn't be so bad it if was because everyone knew that Android was miles ahead - but with so many websites and companies still only catering for Iphone, and every other TV advert seemingly saying "Works with Iphone" "Get this on the App Store" etc, some people don't seem to have got the memo.

      No, instead today, we hear irrelevant comparisons of how Apple's sales compare well to just one single phone out of thousands of Android devices.

      2 1
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        That Android figure is across all products, not just phones. The million number also includes a lot of shit that can't really be called "smartphone".

        0 3
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          "That Android figure is across all products, not just phones. The million number also includes a lot of shit that can't really be called "smartphone"." in your worthless opinion.....

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  9. Big_Ted
    Facepalm

    Not again...........

    When was the last time they released an iphone or iapd that was OOS within a couple of hours for online ordering.

    They know that they will have at least x million online sales by the release day so it would not be hard to get together with Foxconn etc to arrange to have that many plus as many extra needed for resellers and network operators etc and a date when they would be ready.

    Its not "Magical and revolusionary" thinking after all, its simple business practice. They obviously want people to think there is a limited supply so they que up at the Apple stores and get online stories about shortages, its the cheapest publicity possible and has the added benifit of getting the Fanbois foaming at the mouth to buy something they don't need if they already have a 4S anyway......

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It doesn't end there

    What Dry Throat nefariously refused to reveal is that Apple is holding back those millions and millions of devices because for some reason they were erroneously delivered with a micro usb connector!

    And they expect all those manufacturers of external devices (you know who you are) to breathe a collective sigh of relief now that they are no longer forced to include old iCrapple connectors in their stuff. Instead they can escape the evil grasp of Jobs (egoJ) by switching to that usb thingie.

    Within days the new devices will swarm the market and Apple will announce the iPhone 5usb!

    1 0
  11. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    As The Saying Goes

    "Many a true word spoken in jest."

    5 0
  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Though I fear that The Onion did it better :)

    http://www.theonion.com/articles/apple-announces-new-iphone-with-nword-on-back-know,29531/

    1 0
    1. Dave 126 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Though I fear that The Onion did it better :)

      Almost as good as their "Apple releases MacBook Wheel, with predictive sentence technology" scoop...

      0 0
  13. someone up north

    it shows you do can fool all the people all the times !

    in the US of states, you do can fools all the people all the times,

    0 2
  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Invitation to Apple product launch

    Never. Not even if hell freezes over.

    ..but I guess you didn't think there was much of a risk anyway.

    So on balance probably worth the LOLs

    0 0
  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Writing Style

    The writing style of the author doesn't seem like it would match someone with an inside track into management of apple. It sounds more like an Fandroid gone crazy.

    0 8
  16. Dana W
    Happy

    And they said I was mad.

    Glad to see the Tinfoil hat crowd out in force today.

    0 0
  17. TechicallyConfused
    Facepalm

    Only because I am lazy. . . .

    I see history in danger of repeating itself. I see Apple heading back the way it went year ago when it moved from the DTP sweetheart to lodged so far up its own arse it couldn't even interface with itself.

    I am bought into the iPhone, iPod, iPad, iTunes hook line and sinker but not because I love Apple or think the iphone or iPad is better than the rest. . . I am just too lazy to be arsed to try and sort out the mayhem of moving all my media to a different device - especially the stuff bought at the iTunes store. . . is there an easy way to do this. . . again I don't know and sad to say this is once again due to apathy.

    That said, if Apple continue to tote mediocre, incremental improvements as ground breaking stuff then even I will find myself telling them to fuck off and I'll buy myself a Galaxy or Windows 8 device.

    Love iTunes simplicity

    Hate iTunes stupid high prices

    Ambivalent to the iPhone/iPad

    Hate the poncy twats that run the company

    J

    6 1
  18. Stevie

    Bah!

    This latest outrageous revelation from Applezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    0 0
  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Jennifer Government

    I think Max Barry was onto something with his novel Jennifer Government.

    Will Apple go the whole hog and employ a thug to shot and steal one in the name of sales.

    0 0
  20. danny_0x98

    Obvious Secrets

    They clearly set aside an allotment for pre-orders. This time it was 2 million. The allotment sold out faster than last year's allotment. I would not necessarily ascribe that to increased demand: it could be that some folks are thinking "Lines, ugh, been there, done that."

    Apple wants to have something for the liners-up to take home next weekend. The lines are visual and make the local news headline. Probably better marketing than the t-shirt with logo.

    Besides, a happy customer in a store is a promising sales opportunity for accessories and services. The carriers understand this as well. If you sell out all inventory via the internet, you left money on the table.

    Now, this US-ian visited a Sprint store yesterday to talk about getting an iPhone. They confirmed my suspicion that there are time-derived allocations. X for pre-orders, X1 for the first weekend, and X1 + X2 for the first fourteen days, etc. The folks there expect lines.

    As the 2010 iPhone came out in June of 2010 (AT&T and Verizon), I expect almost all of those who got their iPhone 4 from June through September are chomping at the bit to upgrade, now that premature cancellation fees are off the table. Apple will set some records for volumes.

    The Sprint folks, veterans of the 4s introduction, think initial demand won't be as crazy as they saw for the 4s. We'll see. They do have a point in that all their iPhone customers are at one year or less on their contracts.

    Just in case the author or readers supportive of the author's thesis go into the phone manufacturing business, let me remind them that any customer who walks into a store looking for one type of phone and finds it out of stock, may decide to get a different manufacturers' model. ("Ooh, sorry, no iPhone 5's. We'll get more on Monday. You know, a lot of our customers have been really happy with this Galaxy S III.") The carrier prefers that the customer walks out with a phone and a contract that day, and, indeed, may be incentivizing its employees to move other stock since shortages for the big news items opens a door. Creating artificial scarcity for publicity is risky in the phone business.

    Manufacturing and inventorying units in excess of initial demand is also costly and causes one to pay more as factory lines are ramped up, shut down, and restarted when the units have sold through. The more initial volume, the longer the lead time or the more costlier manufacturing as the factory owners charge a premium for overtime and extra shifts. The goal is not sheer numbers, it's to find the right number that maximize profits.

    Plus, I don't really see as how lots of people being told "You'll have to wait two weeks for your iPhone." translates into demand from those who were otherwise uninterested in the product or market sector.

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  21. toadwarrior
    Facepalm

    Considering Anna puts her name to some real tripe, the fact no one will put their name to this says it's about as credible as any claim to the existance of big foot.

    0 5
    1. Dave 126 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Who is?

      There is a way of finding out, or at least giving a good probability... What you do is assemble all articles by each Reg writer into individual ZIP files. You then add all Team Register articles to each archive, and whichever ZIP file increases the least is most likely to be your culprit. Obviously, the accuracy improves the more text you have to work with, and may well be skewed by subject matter, i.e Dabs might use the word 'Apple' than Page does.

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  22. Gordon Pryra

    @Team Register?

    I’m used to many down votes, people don’t get my sense of humour (or understand my shit spelling, whatever) but I must admit, I’m jealous of your 39 in 3 hours!!

    0 0
  23. Ilsa Loving
    Angel

    Or maybe....

    Foxconn just wasn't able to coerce enough interns to pump out more product?

    1 0
  24. SilverWave
    Happy

    Thanks for that :-D *tears of laughter*

    Class :-P

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