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 -

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.