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AT&T suspended iPhone 4 pre-orders Wednesday after demand overwhelmed inventory. Really? Are they incapable of predicting demand after four versions of the pho

by hvs 16y ago

AT&T suspended iPhone 4 pre-orders Wednesday after demand overwhelmed inventory. Really? Are they incapable of predicting demand after four versions of the phone, or are they unable to manufacture enough even though they knew demand would be high? Or are they just artificially limiting supply?

qq66 16y ago
I doubt they need to artificially limit supply anymore for such an established product like iPhone (even iPad supplies weren't that limited). My guess is #2 - Apple wants to release the product as soon as possible to be as far ahead of the competition as possible. Thus, the time between the finalization of the product specs (after all engineering has been done) and the launch date will be kept pretty tight. They'll make all they can in that time, and then sell what they have on launch day.
iamdave 16y ago
The last option seems the most likely.
- glhaynes 16y ago
  Why?
  - iamdave 16y ago
    The cellular/mobile phone industry in the US is probably THE worst when it comes to treating customers like customers, instead of assets. When you actually value customers through a four letter acronym (look it up/do the research if you're unfamiliar with ARPU), it's not entirely unlikely that there are things in motion behind the scenes to drive up demand artificially, while on the books companies like AT&T and Verizon (the latter of which has a well documented history of locking built-in features out of phones in order to extract a premium fee from their use by customers-see below) look squeaky clean. ----- http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Verizon-Wireless-Users-Sue-Over-Disabled-Bluetooth-Features/ http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Verizon-Wireles... http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/verizon-locks-out-spectrum-features-444 http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/verizon-locks-ou... http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161019/verizon_locks_out_gps_competition_customers_complain.html http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161019/verizon... http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/want-droid-work-e-mail-itll-cost-you-extra-575 http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/want-droid-work-e-mail-i... http://www.pencomputing.com/wireless/motorolav710.html http://www.pencomputing.com/wireless/motorolav710.html
Terretta 16y ago
AT&T has no reason (other than network capacity) to limit supply. AT&T definitely has no reason to have their servers go down under signups, giving further impression and bad PR of capacity handling problems. What AT&T does have is IT management who use Blackberries, and still think a smartphone is defined by its technical feature set. With iPhone technical feature set comparing poorly (in conventional tech opinion) to Android, and with Android beating iPhone sales the past few months (ignoring that iPhone buyers might be waiting for v4), it's "inconceivable" (AT&T's actual word) that people really want iPhone that much. AT&T is genuinely confused by this.
mcknz 16y ago
What's not to like? If they under-prepare, the worst that happens is they get all kinds of press on how hot the product is. If they over-prepare, they just waste money. Seems to happen repeatedly -- Jobs & co. are too smart just to keep underestimating demand all the time. And this coming from a company that always issues extremely low earnings guidance....

by hvs 16y ago

qq66 16y ago

I doubt they need to artificially limit supply anymore for such an established product like iPhone (even iPad supplies weren't that limited). My guess is #2 - Apple wants to release the product as soon as possible to be as far ahead of the competition as possible. Thus, the time between the finalization of the product specs (after all engineering has been done) and the launch date will be kept pretty tight. They'll make all they can in that time, and then sell what they have on launch day.

iamdave 16y ago

The last option seems the most likely.

glhaynes 16y ago
Why?
- iamdave 16y ago
  The cellular/mobile phone industry in the US is probably THE worst when it comes to treating customers like customers, instead of assets. When you actually value customers through a four letter acronym (look it up/do the research if you're unfamiliar with ARPU), it's not entirely unlikely that there are things in motion behind the scenes to drive up demand artificially, while on the books companies like AT&T and Verizon (the latter of which has a well documented history of locking built-in features out of phones in order to extract a premium fee from their use by customers-see below) look squeaky clean. ----- http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Verizon-Wireless-Users-Sue-Over-Disabled-Bluetooth-Features/ http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Verizon-Wireles... http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/verizon-locks-out-spectrum-features-444 http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/verizon-locks-ou... http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161019/verizon_locks_out_gps_competition_customers_complain.html http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161019/verizon... http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/want-droid-work-e-mail-itll-cost-you-extra-575 http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/want-droid-work-e-mail-i... http://www.pencomputing.com/wireless/motorolav710.html http://www.pencomputing.com/wireless/motorolav710.html

Terretta 16y ago

AT&T has no reason (other than network capacity) to limit supply. AT&T definitely has no reason to have their servers go down under signups, giving further impression and bad PR of capacity handling problems. What AT&T does have is IT management who use Blackberries, and still think a smartphone is defined by its technical feature set. With iPhone technical feature set comparing poorly (in conventional tech opinion) to Android, and with Android beating iPhone sales the past few months (ignoring that iPhone buyers might be waiting for v4), it's "inconceivable" (AT&T's actual word) that people really want iPhone that much. AT&T is genuinely confused by this.

mcknz 16y ago

What's not to like? If they under-prepare, the worst that happens is they get all kinds of press on how hot the product is. If they over-prepare, they just waste money. Seems to happen repeatedly -- Jobs & co. are too smart just to keep underestimating demand all the time. And this coming from a company that always issues extremely low earnings guidance....