iPhone 5s Set To Sell Out Very Quickly Amid Supply Constraints

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iPhone 5S 3 colors

If you want to get your hands on an iPhone 5s anytime soon, prepare to work for it. Apple is suffering “severely constrained” supply for the 5s launch, and it’s likely that most models will sell out quickly in stores this weekend.

“We don’t know the cause of the iPhone 5s shortages, but have been told that there will not be any issue with purchasing a 5c on launch day,” according to BGR. AllThingsD has heard that carriers “will have grotesquely unavailable inventory,” and 9to5Mac reports that around 80% of iPhones stocked in Apple Stores for this weekend are the 5c, not the 5s.

“Of the iPhone 5s units scheduled for delivery to Apple Stores for the launch this Friday, about an average of three out of every four units will be a Space Gray model,” elaborates 9to5Mac. “The white/silver and white/gold options will be hard to come by at launch.”

Apple didn’t offer preorders for the 5s like it did for the 5c last week, and heavy supply constraints appear to be the reason why. It would be pandemonium if no one could buy the 5s at launch, so Apple wanted to make sure it had enough to at least last for a little while. And it looks like stores are still going to sell out rather quickly. Lines have already been forming at heavily trafficked Apple Stores, like the Fifth Avenue NYC and London locations.

Demand for the 5s in China has been incredibly high, as Apple has been allowing customers to reserve phones ahead of this upcoming launch weekend. The gold 5s sold out within two hours at several Chinese Apple stores.

5c preorders went relatively smoothly over the past weekend, and most configurations haven’t sold out. Apple didn’t issue a press release saying how many preorders were sold like past years, but analysts are estimating about 2.2 million.

The iPhone 5s and 5c will go on sale Friday at 8 a.m. local time at the Apple Store, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and other retailers like Radioshack and Walmart.

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