Even Apple can't work with itself. Their web site showed availability at the local store, so I called to check. The guy (who was in the Midwest) said they were out of stock. I did this over a couple of days. Finally I called the store itself....by demanding and demanding over and over (at least 10 times) to go to the store itself. there I asked "instock?, answer Yes. "Line?", answer No. Went and bought the phone in 15 minutes.
Apple has a solution to this-- if you find it available online, just buy it for in-store pick up. Takes all the urgency out of the transaction, and the reserved line moves quicker at all times.
You are correct that demand exceeds supply for every iPhone launch, and part of that is a by-product of Apple's hype, no doubt. Apple could certainly smooth out sales by deploying some traditional tricks-- limiting geographical distribution, launching with higher pricing and discounting later, etc. But I think it's a good problem to have, and it's really only a problem if a delayed sale results in a lost sale. Obviously, there are a lot of benefits to the excitement generated by an iPhone launch, and a lot of that goes away if Apple went for a slower rollout. |
