Friday's iPhone X Pre-Orders Will Be Crucial for Apple
By Alex Webb
26 October 2017, 23:23 GMT+5
27 October 2017, 01:01 GMT+5
IPhone X pre-orders start Friday, a week before Nov. 3 release
Customer loyalty likely to outweigh component supply concerns
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Apple Struggles to Get iPhone X to Market
Apple's Struggle to Get IPhone X to Market on Time
The most important date for Apple Inc.’s iPhone X is arguably a week before the flagship smartphone actually reaches stores.
That would be Friday, when consumers can pre-order the $999 device, which will ship by Nov. 3. It’s a smart tactical move for Apple because it helps lock people in -- even though the company doesn’t collect payment until the phone actually ships.
That in turn dissuades shoppers from buying competing devices should there not be enough iPhone Xs available during the holiday shopping season. Thanks to manufacturing challenges, shortages of the 10th anniversary phone are widely expected in the coming weeks.
“Any time you can get people to pre-commit to a product that’s not available, it’s good news,” said Julie Ask, a Forrester Research analyst. “It gives you a lot of visibility, it’s less expensive than selling it to people in stores, it’s easier to tell people when it’s going to arrive.”
Under retail chief Angela Ahrendts, Apple has made it much easier to secure iPhones well in advance. That’s led to shorter lines of expectant fans waiting outside stores on release days. So even though analysts widely expect iPhone X supplies to be limited early on, the device will still be available in 55 countries and territories. Apple also expects to have the iPhone X in many stores on Nov. 3 and said Tuesday that walk-in buyers should “arrive early.”
Investors and analysts will be able to monitor how the wait times for delivery develop in the course of Friday, giving insights into demand. As more people pre-order, delivery times will likely lengthen as Apple’s initial supply of iPhone X models is eaten up.
Given reported production bottlenecks, iPhone X delivery times will be four to six weeks by 8 a.m. New York time and should remain largely unchanged in the following days, said Gene Munster, a veteran Apple analyst and co-founder of VC firm Loup Ventures.
IPhone X demand and supply should sync about three to four months after launch, while it typically takes two to three months for a new iPhone to reach global supply-demand equilibrium, Munster added in a note to clients on Thursday.