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Apple boosts production of gold iPhone 5s by a third after availability went straight to October

The WSJ reports that Apple has instructed suppliers to increase production of the gold model of the iPhone 5s by one-third after seeing high demand for the color. Availability for the gold model was into October within 30 minutes of orders opening on Apple Store sites around the world, with retail stores also reportedly selling out quickly and carriers getting few in the first place … 

It’s likely that demand for the champagne colored model has been fuelled by it being immediately recognizable as a 5s, the slate grey and white models looking more similar to the older iPhone 5.

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Comments

  1. Barry Dudley - 11 years ago

    Apple Uk now slipped to October!!

  2. Sean Gilley - 11 years ago

    It was always October, it seems. At 3:02 AM EST, the moment the store went online for me, shipping was 7 – 10 days plus 5 -7 day delivery. Do they not have any stock at all for the online store?

    • Sean Gilley - 11 years ago

      Guess I misunderstood. I now see shipping is “October” not 7-10 days.

      • Ben Lovejoy - 11 years ago

        Yeah, it went to 7-10 days within a few mins, then to ‘October’ within half an hour

  3. Jonny Mack - 11 years ago

    Ge duh. And they made it the CENTER of the 5s campaign, even turning the damn page gold. Hello. There should be a lot of pissed off iPhone fans today. I know I am. I don’t think it’s because it’s recognizable, I think it’s the prettiest phone they’ve come out with in awhile. What on earth were they thinking? It’s not just the gold one, by the way, the Apple Store near me didn’t have enough white phones to cover the demand of the first 100 people in line. Plenty of black phones though. Plenty.

  4. I think it’s irresponsible to think that they would know Gold would be the popular color. Apple doesn’t strike me as a company that does market testing to know this type of thing before hand. If we all remember the original white iPhone 3S was a super flop, and producing way more Gold iPhones than there was demand, especially at launch when other colors could be produced would be slightly irresponsible. I got the Gold within 2 minutes, and it says it ships in 1-3 days for me (Apple store App). I think matte gold is a trending hot color, while the white and aluminum is nothing different than the 5, which would be the least desirable.

    • I was about to do the same. But the stupid app did not give me the option to add a line to my current plan just to upgrade and the price it gave was $549. So I had to go back to the web page but it was to late. ;(

  5. Chris Killen - 11 years ago

    Received confirmation email of my order being processed at 3:09 AM EST, successful purchase of 64GB Space Gray 5s from AT&T website. Even charged my card already (even though it says I won’t be charged till it ships). At 9:06 AM I got an email with my Order Status. The status says that the shipping date is 10/21/13 – 10/30/13. I really hope that’s wrong because right now Apple’s site is saying 7-10 days for shipping from AT&T on the same model. How could this be?

  6. Claustin (@ClintAustin26) - 11 years ago

    i was initially pissed that I ended up having to work and couldn’t go to a store this morning, but now it seems it worked out better considering the supply contraints. I ordered a gold 64GB straight from Apple the second the store came online when it was still 1-3 business days. Guess I got lucky having to work.

  7. Nathaniel Cook - 11 years ago

    Way to screw up big time this year, Apple.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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