There’s not a single place in the world today where you can physically buy an Apple iPhone 7 Plus. Yesterday, reports came in that confirmed that it wasn’t only the Jet Black colors that were out. Every single piece in every single store has been sold out.
It’s no surprise that the iPhone 7 Plus was such a big hit, with its dual camera and top-end 256GB variant being two of the most attractive features. Even though the depth of field capability for portrait shots won’t come out until later this year as an OTA (over-the-air) software update, buyers don’t seem to care. They just wanted to get their hands on an iPhone 7 Plus as soon as they could. You can still order one online, though, but at Apple stores you’ll have to wait until there’s more inventory to handle the huge demand just a week into the launch of Apple’s latest smartphone.
It probably helped that the larger-screen iPhone 7 Plus had a competitor experience a major fail just ahead of its own launch. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 underwent a global recall when up to 70 phones reportedly overheated and caught fire because of the battery. This could have helped the iPhone 7 Plus get some new customers that may have otherwise opted for the Note 7.
Apple executives are undoubtedly happy with first-week sales, but there’s no confirmation on how well the smaller iPhone 7 is doing. We do know that the Jet Black is definitely on back-order at the moment, with several confirmed orders showing November delivery dates. Nevertheless, this is the first time that a phone that came with low expectations surprised the market by selling out so quickly.
Here’s what Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said about the news:
“We sincerely appreciate our customers’ patience as we work hard to get the new iPhone into the hands of everyone who wants one as quickly as possible.”
But despite Apple’s optimism, it’s still unclear when they’ll be able to get fresh inventory for the thousands still looking to buy an iPhone 7 Plus. We expect supply to catch up with demand sometime later this month, so even your confirmed delivery times of late October and November might still be brought forward if they can manage it.
Apple needed to sell over 79 million units of iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus combined, but it looks like they won’t have a problem reaching that figure. There are still huge markets out there where the phone is yet to be launched; like India, for example, where the phone is only expected to see the light of day on October 7 – a full month after the U.S. release. In markets like the UK, both iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are available right now for pre-order, but will only be available for sale in stores from tomorrow, September 16, 2016.
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