If you were hoping to order a new iPhone 5s from the Apple Online Store tomorrow and have it delivered to your door on Saturday, then you may be out of luck. The new handset just went on sale in Australia, and no matter which color or capacity you go for, every single model comes with a 7-10 business days shipping estimate.
We’ve been hearing that the iPhone 5s is in short supply — possibly due to Apple’s decision to bring the device to China on launch day for the very first time. But we hadn’t anticipated just how tight the situation would be right from the very start. New products typically ship within a couple of days until initial supplies are sold, and then those estimates start slipping.
The situation is even worse in Hong Kong and Singapore, where customers can expect to receive their iPhone 5s in “October.”
Although we can’t confirm these are the same shipping estimates that U.S. customers will see when the iPhone 5s goes on sale there tomorrow, it certainly looks like your best chance of getting an iPhone 5s anytime soon will involve leaving the house very early tomorrow morning and picking one up from a carrier or your local Apple retail store.
But of course, there’s no telling what their supplies will be like. In the U.K., O2 — a launch partner for the original iPhone back in 2007 — has informed customers that none of its stores will have iPhone 5s units on release day, and that they’ll have to order them for delivery at a later date. Even big, successful retailers like Carphone Warehouse are only expecting a handful of units.
Every iPhone Apple releases is difficult to get hold of at first — particularly when you cannot pre-order one online ahead of its release. But it seems the situation could be even worse this time around. Apple is launching the iPhone 5c at the same time, however, which could mean that there is less demand for the high-end model anyway.
Source: Apple Australia
