16GB iPhone demand causing shortage

Based on checks at both American and German Apple retail locations,
Apple seems to be experiencing a widespread shortage of 16 gigabyte
model iPhones. Apple's web site seems to confirm this, as the online
store currently lists a five to seven day shipping time on the 16
gigabyte model.

According to iFun, T-Mobile Germany is not currently offering the 16
gigabyte version and company representatives have estimated that the
shortage may last until May.

Separate checks on the availability of the 32 gigabyte iPod touch models
showed the unit to be widely available and suggest that the shortage of
16 gigabyte model iPhones is attributable to high demand.

iPhone News <invalid@nospam.net> amazed us all with the following in
news:invalid-C974AA.10393216032008@news.giganews.com:

> Based on checks at both American and German Apple retail locations,
> Apple seems to be experiencing a widespread shortage of 16 gigabyte
> model iPhones. Apple's web site seems to confirm this, as the online
> store currently lists a five to seven day shipping time on the 16
> gigabyte model.
>
> According to iFun, T-Mobile Germany is not currently offering the 16
> gigabyte version and company representatives have estimated that the
> shortage may last until May.
>
> Separate checks on the availability of the 32 gigabyte iPod touch models
> showed the unit to be widely available and suggest that the shortage of
> 16 gigabyte model iPhones is attributable to high demand.
>

Sounds like production problems to me. There certainly aren't thousands of
customers banging down the doors to get one.

iPhone News <invalid@nospam.net> wrote in news:invalid-
C974AA.10393216032008@news.giganews.com:

> Separate checks on the availability of the 32 gigabyte iPod touch models
> showed the unit to be widely available and suggest that the shortage of
> 16 gigabyte model iPhones is attributable to high demand.
>
>

They're all getting ready for the OSX bloatware Apple has promised from the
3rd party developers paying for the priviledge. All those graphic toys
gotta be stored "somewhere"....now on the most expensive non-volatile
memory on Earth.

16GB SDHC Class 6 Turbo memory is $59 at Newegg.com last week:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211245
.....simply unbelievable. That's only half a tank of gas in a Hummer.

The movie and music selection list on the 32GB Nokia N800 Linux tablet has
grown exponentially....(c; The two 8GB cards are loaded with more in my
carrying case. I don't have to discard my memory investment just because
of an upgrade. It even hot swaps!

I wonder how many terabytes of still usable iPhone memory will go to the
landfill because of this marketing trick of ever-expanding memory versions
sold in little pieces...?? If it only had a simple card slot you wouldn't
have to throw this commodity in the trash.

I'd be very interested to look at an iPhone PC board original and new to
see if the old version had an extra, unused location for more memory. That
would make sense as it would save them from redesigning a new board just to
satisfy the marketing trickery. 4GB has 1 chip, 8GB - 2, 16GB - 3, 32GB -
4. Make the boards with 4 surface mount lands but only populate what
they'll pay for. Are there any blank spaces on the original iPhone boards?
If so, the OS should be able to detect simply adding more chips....or
replacing the 4GB chips with 8GB chips or 16 GB chips if there's only 2.
32GB is probably the limit of the 16-bit motherboard.

The Bob <nospam@bob.com> wrote in
news:Xns9A6358BD6DADCbob@216.196.97.136:

> Sounds like production problems to me. There certainly aren't
> thousands of customers banging down the doors to get one.
>
>

Naw, it's the same iPhone. They either had blank spaces for more memory
not populated on the original, or have swapped the 4GB chips for 8GB or
16GB chips. The difference between the old and new is just which memory
chips are soldered onto the board where you cannot change them or upgrade
them.

They shoulda been STANDARD card slots. But, then a memory upgrade scam
wouldn't cost each customer $500, would it?....(c;

No Glitzies want to be caught dead with an "old" 4GB or 8GB, now obsolete
iPHone. How horrible! The shame on the family and all.... They'll all
"upgrade" and buy a new one, right?

3 months from now, we'll be dumping the 16-bit iPhones for the 32-bit
iPhones. Six months away those will be dumped into the landfill when Apple
comes out with the 32-bit 3G iPhone. It's a bloatware progression....

They're gonna need lots more memory to store the bloatware graphics for the
3rd party developers. Check out the size of the memory used in a brand
new, unloaded Mac Air notebook. It's OSX, too, you know...

Per Larry:
>3 months from now, we'll be dumping the 16-bit iPhones for the 32-bit
>iPhones. Six months away those will be dumped into the landfill when Apple
>comes out with the 32-bit 3G iPhone. It's a bloatware progression....

Is there any sign of a hard-drive iPhone? I'm kind of addicted
to my 60-gig iPod for it's data transport capability and bc I can
have all my music in one place.

But for years, I've been jones-ing to fold my iPod, PDA, and cell
phone into a single device...
--
PeteCresswell

"(PeteCresswell)" <x@y.Invalid> wrote in
news:88uqt3tcabqv9ib7ggh52233lnhq3b8l9v@4ax.com:

> Per Larry:
>>3 months from now, we'll be dumping the 16-bit iPhones for the 32-bit
>>iPhones. Six months away those will be dumped into the landfill when
>>Apple comes out with the 32-bit 3G iPhone. It's a bloatware
>>progression....
>
> Is there any sign of a hard-drive iPhone? I'm kind of addicted
> to my 60-gig iPod for it's data transport capability and bc I can
> have all my music in one place.
>
> But for years, I've been jones-ing to fold my iPod, PDA, and cell
> phone into a single device...

No, I think Apple is headed the other way! Look at the new laptop, the
Air. Apple has iTunes on its mind....selling it to them by remote control.
Look at the iPhones. Web based....where the company can control the users
as well as the developers, and fleece both. The Air is very revealing. It
has no CD/DVD drive so you don't get tempted to take things off it or put
things on it. They'll attack the USB port, next, taking the ability to
plug in a memory card or USB plug memory to offload/onload programs and
data to it. I couldn't believe it didn't have a removable media drive in
it....without having to buy a USB one from Apple, of course.

The whole company seems to be headed to a web-based, server-stored, rent-
it-to-'em-by-the-month business plan.....

Their music players are turning into iTunes box offices. The days of the
hard drive storage iPod are numbered. You need to RENT your music from US!
It's why they don't have microSD cards in them....see?

On Mar 16, 11:55*am, Larry <no...@home.com> wrote:
> The Bob <nos...@bob.com> wrote innews:Xns9A6358BD6DADCbob@216.196.97.136:
>
> > Sounds like production problems to me. *There certainly aren't
> > thousands of customers banging down the doors to get one.
>
> Naw, it's the same iPhone. *They either had blank spaces for more memory
> not populated on the original, or have swapped the 4GB chips for 8GB or
> 16GB chips. *The difference between the old and new is just which memory
> chips are soldered onto the board where you cannot change them or upgrade
> them.
>
> They shoulda been STANDARD card slots. *But, then a memory upgrade scam
> wouldn't cost each customer $500, would it?....(c;
>
> No Glitzies want to be caught dead with an "old" 4GB or 8GB, now obsolete
> iPHone. *How horrible! *The shame on the family and all.... *They'll all
> "upgrade" and buy a new one, right?
>
> 3 months from now, we'll be dumping the 16-bit iPhones for the 32-bit
> iPhones. *Six months away those will be dumped into the landfill when Apple
> comes out with the 32-bit 3G iPhone. *It's a bloatware progression....
>
> They're gonna need lots more memory to store the bloatware graphics for the
> 3rd party developers. *Check out the size of the memory used in a brand
> new, unloaded Mac Air notebook. *It's OSX, too, you know...

No one will ever dump the iPhone. They would make an excellent GO
Phone in the AT&T lineup and as so the demad will remain high even
when they are obsolete.

> Sounds like production problems to me. There certainly aren't thousands
> of
> customers banging down the doors to get one.

A 5-7 day backlog sounds like extraordinary inventory & production
management to me. If you've got a really hot product, and can keep the delay
manageable, you probably enhance, rather than detract from, its popularity.
You can't keep that sort of thing up very long, but most are going to be
hang in there for that 5-7 days, and the anticipation is going to get them
all the more excited about the product. Plus you get all the news stories
about it being such a hot product that you can't keep it in stock.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA


"The Bob" <nospam@bob.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9A6358BD6DADCbob@216.196.97.136...
> iPhone News <invalid@nospam.net> amazed us all with the following in
> news:invalid-C974AA.10393216032008@news.giganews.com:
>
>> Based on checks at both American and German Apple retail locations,
>> Apple seems to be experiencing a widespread shortage of 16 gigabyte
>> model iPhones. Apple's web site seems to confirm this, as the online
>> store currently lists a five to seven day shipping time on the 16
>> gigabyte model.
>>
>> According to iFun, T-Mobile Germany is not currently offering the 16
>> gigabyte version and company representatives have estimated that the
>> shortage may last until May.
>>
>> Separate checks on the availability of the 32 gigabyte iPod touch models
>> showed the unit to be widely available and suggest that the shortage of
>> 16 gigabyte model iPhones is attributable to high demand.
>>
>
> Sounds like production problems to me. There certainly aren't thousands
> of
> customers banging down the doors to get one.

In article <Xns9A63DE8BC6137bob@216.196.97.136>, The Bob
<nospam@bob.com> wrote:

> "Mike Jacoubowsky" <MikeJ@ChainReaction.com> amazed us all with the
> following in news:6IlDj.3547$Rq1.851@nlpi068.nbdc.sbc.com:
>
> >> Sounds like production problems to me. There certainly aren't
> >> thousands of
> >> customers banging down the doors to get one.
> >
> > A 5-7 day backlog sounds like extraordinary inventory & production
> > management to me. If you've got a really hot product, and can keep the
> > delay manageable, you probably enhance, rather than detract from, its
> > popularity. You can't keep that sort of thing up very long, but most
> > are going to be hang in there for that 5-7 days, and the anticipation
> > is going to get them all the more excited about the product. Plus you
> > get all the news stories about it being such a hot product that you
> > can't keep it in stock.
>
> A great inventory and production environment, for sure. The problem is tht
> Apple doesn't make money from that aspect of the company. And while
> Inventory and production people are cheering all over the globe,
> salespeople are selling a fraction of what they would with inventory in
> stock.
>
> This inventory pattern is far from new in the business world. It gerenally
> resides with products whose relevence in their market has waned. Products
> that a company is not confident enough in to have ample inventory on hand
> to sell.
>
> Someone telling 5-7 days in today's market has just lost my complete
> interest in their product. I can go down the road and find a perfectly
> acceptable replacement phone that functions better for half the cost. I
> might have to give up a few useless bells and whistles, but that's the way
> the market is these days.
>
> If you can't satisfy this culture's need for immediate gratification, you
> become dispoable as an option real quick.

It's extremely difficult to judge demand for a brand new product.

With the release of the Star Wars Episode I, there were a number of
companies that almost went, or did go, bankrupt simply because they
badly over-estimated the demand for licensed products.

There are of course people who will go elsewhere, but there are also
those who are wiling to wait for the better quality product (in their
opinion), and even some who will consider a waiting list the proof of a
better product. Hence the waiting lists for high-end cars like Ferrari
.... hell, there are people putting their names on the waiting list for
the new Fiat 500.

"Mike Jacoubowsky" <MikeJ@ChainReaction.com> wrote in
news:6IlDj.3547$Rq1.851@nlpi068.nbdc.sbc.com:

> A 5-7 day backlog sounds like extraordinary inventory & production
> management to me. If you've got a really hot product, and can keep the
> delay manageable, you probably enhance, rather than detract from, its
> popularity. You can't keep that sort of thing up very long, but most
> are going to be hang in there for that 5-7 days, and the anticipation
> is going to get them all the more excited about the product. Plus you
> get all the news stories about it being such a hot product that you
> can't keep it in stock.
>
>

If you "create" a shortage on your hot product, they'll stand in line for
hours to pay full retail much longer before you have to start the price
cutting to keep the cashflow up. The car companies have played this game
for years. The little Smart Car is about to be introduced, finally, into
the USA. They are hyping the hell out of its short supply, even though the
cars are old in Europe and Asia and have been around for years. There are
waiting lists, just like there were for the BMW Mini a few years ago.

It's an old game. Apple is a prime player since the Apple II.

Anybody <anybody@anywhere-anytime.com> wrote in news:170320081833367072%
anybody@anywhere-anytime.com:

> ... hell, there are people putting their names on the waiting list for
> the new Fiat 500.
>
>

Hope it runs better than the original I had. It was a PoS!

Larry <noone@home.com> wrote:

> It's an old game. Apple is a prime player since the Apple II.

Balderdash. I have owned Apple computers some 1984 and have NEVER had to
wait for any type of false shortage. You sir are just flat out lying.

In article <newt-3152C7.18391217032008@news.giganews.com>,
Wayne Newton <newt@nomail.net> wrote:

> Larry <noone@home.com> wrote:
>
> > It's an old game. Apple is a prime player since the Apple II.
>
> Balderdash. I have owned Apple computers some 1984 and have NEVER had to
> wait for any type of false shortage. You sir are just flat out lying.

I agree with as I've been much the same. Safe to say that most of the
posters here hadn't even been born in '84. :-)

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To reply by email, remove the word "space"

Kurt <labolide@spacegmail.com> amazed us all with the following in
news:labolide-94B950.08015818032008@news.giganews.com:

> In article <newt-3152C7.18391217032008@news.giganews.com>,
> Wayne Newton <newt@nomail.net> wrote:
>
>> Larry <noone@home.com> wrote:
>>
>> > It's an old game. Apple is a prime player since the Apple II.
>>
>> Balderdash. I have owned Apple computers some 1984 and have NEVER had
>> to wait for any type of false shortage. You sir are just flat out
>> lying.
>
> I agree with as I've been much the same. Safe to say that most of the
> posters here hadn't even been born in '84. :-)
>

I was out of college and programming on Apples by '84.

In article <Xns9A65B31B1EE29bob@216.196.97.136>,
The Bob <nospam@bob.com> wrote:

> Kurt <labolide@spacegmail.com> amazed us all with the following in
> news:labolide-94B950.08015818032008@news.giganews.com:
>
> > In article <newt-3152C7.18391217032008@news.giganews.com>,
> > Wayne Newton <newt@nomail.net> wrote:
> >
> >> Larry <noone@home.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> > It's an old game. Apple is a prime player since the Apple II.
> >>
> >> Balderdash. I have owned Apple computers some 1984 and have NEVER had
> >> to wait for any type of false shortage. You sir are just flat out
> >> lying.
> >
> > I agree with as I've been much the same. Safe to say that most of the
> > posters here hadn't even been born in '84. :-)
> >
>
> I was out of college and programming on Apples by '84.

Little earlier for me, but no programming. :-)

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To reply by email, remove the word "space"