Will Apple get its 3G iPhone inventory right?

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 21 May 2008 03:45

Your IT - Mobility

My theory that the 3G iPhone will be announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) but not delivered until later in the year is looking shaky.

Gadget site Gizmodo claims to have "confirmed" (though it's the anonymous, supposedly insider tip variety of confirmation) that as widely anticipated, the announcement will occur on June 9 as part of the WWDC keynote presentation.

The source also claims that the new iPhone will go on immediate sale in multiple countries. If that's true, at least I will have been right about a simultaneous worldwide release.

The longer the online Apple Stores in the US and UK show the current model as being "Currently Unavailable", the more credence will be given to suggestions of the early release of the new model.

Back in the day, Apple's inventory management policies meant whenever a new Mac was announced there was plenty of stock of the superseded model in the channel that ended up being sold at a discount.

What's more, the new models were typically in short supply for several months following their debut.

The company gradually tightened things up and for some time has generally managed to maintain the supply of current models up to the announcement of their successors while avoiding excessive stock.

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