How Long For Apple To Restock?

I've visited my nearby Apple Store a few times in the past week to pick up accessories. I felt confused that there were people queued up for iphones but the apple.com availability widget showed no stock for any store in Connecticut.

So I asked about it. 🙂 They explained that even though the 9pm iphone availability widget shows no stock, they sometimes receive additional stock between 10-11am. It might be worth calling some nearby Apple stores to see if they receive morning shipments also.

The main store in your area gets shipments Mon-Sat regardless of what the website says. I showed up 15 minutes before open on Saturday and there was already a line out front. I guy with an orange shirt was going down the line checking for current ATT customers and was running their info through the hand-held to make sure they didn't wait and then not be able to get one. I watched 4-6 boxes go into the store, then a guy in blue came out and started counting and mouthing that there were a few 16 gig phones and the first in line got those, and gave the high sign to the rest of us that we would get one (8 Gig). That is my experience, choose wisely my friend. Michael

At the moment only four stores in the country are showing iPhones in stock, and only one of those stores has the black 16GB version...

This includes the number of iPhones available on the shelves at a particular store after 9 PM, but this does not take into account a delivery that may be received the next morning or afternoon which is sold before each store's available inventory on the shelves is updated or provided after 9 PM.

A store may show no inventory but receive a delivery of some stock the next morning. Between an Apple and at&t store, more than likely an Apple Store will receive additional inventory first, but direct fulfillment orders at an at&t store may take precedence over general inventory replenishment at either.

You can place a direct fulfillment order at an at&t store and then wait until the store contacts you when your order is shipped and when received at the store so you don't have to go to the trouble of showing up at an Apple Store in the hope that additional inventory was received that morning.

My experience is as follows:

If the online availability updated at 9 pm shows phones in stock be there 2-3 hours before store opening to get a shot at getting those.

As suggested above, if online shows no phones, the store may get them later in the day, morning OR afternoon. You have to keep calling. And when they get phones so many other people are calling you may still have to wait in line for 3 hours.

Me I am waiting until they are in stock enough so I can just walk in and buy one. From the trade press, that may be 3-4 weeks.

or possibly not. The truth is, except for some small random shipments, 38 states are currently completely out of stock. Some people are lucky by possibly showing up the morning of a random shipment.

Only Apple knows when they will be replenished. They restock as fast as they can, but if they have no stock to replenish with, they have no stock.

Instead of standing in line, call your local Apple Store a few times during the day to see if they have gotten any shipments.

Well if I may add, this is a blunder for apple, as not having a product when people want to buy it, works against all the marketing they have done to sell it!!! I know many people are thinking, that the demand will increase if it's not available!!!! I disagree, as long as you have lines of people wanting to buy it, you should have the product.... Look what happened to kindle, they didn't have enough and people forgot it, or the rush of buying it has left them now.......Does anyone know where these i-phones are made? and how long it takes to make them? Don't forget the shipping time as well!!! I think it's bad for apple, not good as most people think!!!

I don't think Apple marketing anticipated selling over 1 million phones so quickly. The phones are built in Asia and I'm sure Apple is encouraging the factories to up production and shipping unlike Nintendo who after 2 years still cannot meet the demand for the Wii on in the last 2 months, the Wii Fit.

There ARE some people who just won't wait! Apple is loosing sales. The hype and thrill is fading and those people will either buy something else (an iPhone wanna-be) or just not buy at all. They will spend the $$ they had set aside for an iPhone and NOT have the $$ anymore.

I agree, people are sick of waiting, and some people are listening to all the glitches that apple are having and deciding it's still not worth getting an i-phone, at least not until all issues are resolved.

Absolutely not. They just plain old don't have enough stock. They did not expect to sell over a million phones in less than three days, and their rollout was planned over a two month period. They are now trying to produce months worth of phones for sale in a two week period. It has nothing to do with any problems. For the most part there aren't many problems. THe same problems will be there for some people even after future firmware updates. The phone just isn't meant for everyone, I guess, and ATT service doesn't work everywhere, just like the original 1st Gen phone.

We're all users just like yourself. No one knows.

The problem is, apple is not only restocking the US, but 21 other countries, AND also getting ready for launches in other countries at the same time. Inventory is pretty thin...

Glor

Plus replacements for those with hardware problems.