Apple iPhone X orders were officially open for business this morning, starting at 3:01a.m. EST — and the early results indicate that Apple may, in fact, have another hit on its hands. Wait times in the U.S. rapidly stretched past five weeks shipping time for online pre-orders, though the phones will appear on store shelves as of November 3rd.
Apple has confirmed that it will have stock of iPhone X in all of its retail locations — but that supplies will be somewhat limited.
That situation seems to be repeating at points along the globe. Hong Kong ran out less than half an hour after purchases began the mid-afternoon. French customers are also reporting wait times of three or four weeks, as is most of Europe. In Japan, Australia and China, shipping times extended to as much as five or six weeks.
A wait for a big redesign is not unheard of for Apple — there is a reason sleeping outside of an Apple store was something of a point of pride for fanboys and girls. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch in 2014 generated shipments waits times of three to four weeks in the hours after becoming available to pre-order.
Apple is, at this point, expected to take weeks or even months to rebalance its supply against the demand for the newest wave of iPhones. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus’ easy availability may indicate consumers were waiting for the iPhone X and its OLED screen with slimmer bezels and facial recognition scanner for unlocking the phone in lieu of a fingerprint.
Plus, there are those talking poop emojis the world has been promised.
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Apple has said that iPhone X models will be available in its retail stores on Nov. 3 and encouraged customers to “arrive early” in a press release.
Given that it sold out in 10 minutes online — we would say probably really early is the better advice there.
