iPhone 3GS sold out in Australia?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 05 August 2009 11:26

Business IT - Technology

It’s all over the news – none of Australia’s iPhone selling telcos seems to have any stocks of the 16 or 32GB iPhone 3GS, while Apple’s online store is selling them with up to a week’s wait for delivery – do Australians love the iPhone that much?
There’s an iPhone 3GS shortage down under at the moment, although iPhones and shortages have happened before.

It usually happens after a new iPhone model goes on the market, with the rush of demand outstripping supply. But the iPhone 3GS has been on sale now for several weeks, and yet still shortages abound.

Is it due to overwhelming global demand which limits the number of iPhones that can be sent to each country, or is it a shrewd tactic by Apple to ensure that there will be shortages, even if Apple could supply as many iPhones as it wanted?

In Australia, Telstra’s online store says: “Please Note: There is currently a global shortage of iPhone models, and we are out of stock of some models. Register here to receive email notification once we have new stock.”

3 Mobile, which nearly sold out of its allocated stocks on day one, now says that both the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 3GS models are “Sorry, we’ve run out of stock!” – but only when you get to the actual page for each model to get more information.

Optus notes that it too is “out of stock”, while Vodafone’s 16GB and 32GB iPhone pages note a “Low Stock” situation.

Virgin Mobile, a subsidiary of Optus, says on its iPhone page that “iPhone 3GS temporarily out of stock. Next delivery expected mid August.”

Continued on page 2, please read on!