Oh noes, fanbois! iPhone 6 Plus shipments 'DELAYED' in the UK Fanbois in Britain who rushed to buy Apple's iPhone 6 Plus on Friday apparently triggered a delay in shipments. It comes after Cupertino's now well-trodden marketing spiel that demand for its large pocket stroker hit a record number of pre-orders in the US. In Britain, Apple is telling customers shopping via its online store …
£699 for the 64Gbyte 6+, Oneplus one 64Gbyte £328, with Cyanogenmod. And the nearest Apple store is over an hour away.
It's going to be a really difficult decision come phone replacement time, when even if you completely smash the alternative and replace it, it will still have been cheaper in the long run.
@dz-015 - "I've never connected my iPhone to iTunes. That hasn't been necessary for a long time now. You should maybe check your facts before you hit the Reply button."
So -- why do you have an iPhone then? You've enjoyed tapping your emails one letter at a time on a small screen for how many years? In portrait mode only? You wanted to make sure your phone memory couldn't be expanded? That your battery couldn't be replaced? If you aren't going to tie into Apple's services, I can't imagine why any tech savvy individual would hamstring themselves for several years with such backward technology.
The first and last time I touched iTunes was back in the times when I had no means of connecting the iphone directly to the Internet. When that changed, many years ago, it never even crossed my mind to use iTunes for anything. Not sure what you're on about?
There is a very simple reason to be tied to an iphone - it's ease of use, lack of bloat, smooth interface, good quality sound output and for many years best in class quality of display. Not to mention size that doesn't require gorilla hands to handle or rather hard waring outter shell.
That said, the sheep trend of bigger is better that Apple chose to join does not appeal to me at all. So here I am, on my second iphone 4, third will follow should this one die at some point.
Who would've thought I'd ever end up defending Apple haha, but then, there is a difference between constructive criticism and senseless whining for the sake of it.
Expandable memory? Great, got it on my work phone - never used to expand anything, never had the need. Average 'battery lifespan of the iphones I had was roughly 3 years, by which time I wanted to move on to the next model of some sort anyhow. My other half , however, had his battery replaced just fine, for a rather small fee.
Not sure what your phone needs are - mine are rather simple - calls, texts, quick email checks, on demand family photos when no camera is around, tf games and music in my car. Every single one of these functions is performed by my outdated phone brilliantly. How is it backward tech? What is it that you do with your phone on daily bases that you couldn't do with an iphone - genuinely curious.
I'm responding to "dz-015" about how restrictive iPhones are, and lo and behold "Mag07" jumps into the fray to defend Apple as if I was talking to him all along. What - was it shift change time in the shared cubicles again?
Come on Cupertino - can't you ever come up with a new playbook? Every year when the new iPhone are announced, all the paid comments start showing up again from "new" users. Why don't you just let the tech forums have their own discussions and spend your advertising billions on TV soccer matches or something else? How many times do we need to call you out for paying off people to pump the positive comments and reviews, or for standing in lines outside the stores?
Shameless.
"Why don't you just let the tech forums have their own discussions"
Funny that.
Someone says something complimentary about an Apple device? They're accused of being a shill or paid to make the comment.
Someone says something complimentary about a Windows Phone? They're accused of being an astroturfer or a Microsoft employee.
That's why tech forums will never have their own balanced discussions - because regardless of whether or not there are people being paid to make comments for a particular product, there will always be those from another camp ready to spread FUD against it...
@ Andy Prough
I would love to be paid to comment lol! It's an entertaining lunch time past time and I could use the extra money. However, next time, before making false accusations, you may want to check someone's post history. Also, this is a public forum - not a private conversation between two people, anyone can chop in ;)
Wish I knew why people are so trigger happy to attack others with unverified accusations instead of actually contributing arguments to the conversation. Maybe I'm rather limited in my phone usage, treating it primarily as phone, hence my question to you that was left without reply. Missed your chance of educating me a little. I'm rather open minded and have no issues considering a valid argument that will possibly alter my opinion on a matter.
Thinking before typing does not hurt mate. Have a lovely week :)
I'll never buy another non-Apple phone. I've been a coder since the 90s. I was used to programming on Symbian, and had probably every new Nokia and android device from 1996- 2012, from the Nokia communicator to the nexuses. I hated apple with a passion because it's against my principles to touch such a closed architecture.
I had a top of the range android device in 2010, and it's specs were much better than the best iPhone at the time. However it still took me 5 minutes to login to a particular website - I saw someone do it on the iPhone, and was Faster than my computer. Like going back to the Acorn Archimedes, it's not just about specifications but also about the efficiency of processor use. We may be for use on, but the experience from an iPhone is unparalleled. My brother just bought some galaxy S5, and it crashes every few days when you try to text message. My iPhone has crashed five times this year.
Yes, pisses me off the battery life sucks and I can't increase the storage. But it's almost a small price to pay considering iCloud AppleCare, face time, iMessage, and a camera is so good that it rivals HD film cameras (Google it there's a movie shot with 2 cams; iPhone and a $100,000 HD film camera and you be hard pressed to tell the difference.). It's not megapixels, in fact apple deliberately keep it as low megapixels so it's quality is increased in low light, it's better than any pocket Camera I've used in the last 10 years, and I am a keen SLR photographer.
THE GENIUS BAR WORKS FLAWLESSLY, AND THEY REPLACE STUFF WITHOUT QUESTION IMMEDIATELY IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG. I'VE NEVER SEEN SERVICE LIKE THAT, AND THAT'S WITHOUT APPLECARE.
sorry for caps typo, but that's another thing I'm not typing it byword I'm dictating. The voice recognition is so good that it is close to 99% accuracy now. I write articles and essays with Siri. Apple stuff just works. I had 4 replacements of my phone from the Apple Store because for various reasons. Each time my device was exactly how it was a few minutes prior including every message for the last 4 years, every app and setting I've ever used, at the click of a button, in minutes. It works seamlessly and flawlessly, like a lot of Apple stuff does. I don't have to think about it I can switch off and focus on more important shit. FaceTime on iMessage are similar. Admittedly android has caught up a lot, and I accept that this iPhone is just trying to match with android for a lot of things, but the end user experience on iPhone is unsurpassed.
The man speaks sense.
My 5s developed a fault where it wouldn't charge via my Apple dock. It would charge with cables however. Took it in to Apple, told they of my woe. 10 mins later, I'm walking out of the shop with a replacement. That has a 90 day warranty on it!
Buy any other manufacturer and you're on your own should it go wrong, as well as being without your phone for several days.
Samsung seem to forget this when they mock Apple
"I've never connected my iPhone to iTunes. That hasn't been necessary for a long time now. You should maybe check your facts before you hit the Reply button."
I assume you're talking about moving data/photos about via "The Cloud" or WiFi... There is something a bit different about being able to connect a phone via a USB cable to a PC and have it appear as a drive... Now what could that be.... Oh yes, you transfer files much much much faster!
Not really, and I don't think that something like the Oneplus One would be suitable for the average Apple user. £400 over 2 years looks a very reasonable price to pay for the averagely nontechnical person to ensure that they don't have to become technical.
The iPhone is usually more technically advanced than the competition, but sometimes not in ways that are obvious to the user. The 64 bit cpu is an example. Given that phone memory is nonexpandable, the 6 series do not have enough RAM to need 64 bits. The buyer is paying for Apple to beta test their architecture ready for the first generation to make real use of it. (In fact, I suspect that quite a lot of the cost of iPhones is actually pre-amortised development on future models, which is nice if you can get it.)
There are gotchas from the nontechnical user point of view.
If you buy the Applecare +, there is still a £55 excess on accidental damage and the battery is only replaced if it is down to 50% of capacity. That's pretty bad as a lithium battery should take a couple of years to get down to 80%. I don't know how much Applecare+ costs for the iPhone, but that £699 is heading northward.
If you buy third party warranty, it's usually quite a bit more expensive for iPhones than for the nearest competitors.
Even so, the people I know who have iPhones and iPads all regard around £50 per month as being almost an impulse buy. Comparing specs and prices to get what you want for the least outlay is a sign of either poverty or nerdishness for its own sake. I doubt that will change.
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Going on the previous 5 and 5S launches, if you turn up at 11am there will be no queues, just walk up to the counter and buy one.
Unlike the idiots down in London, it would be cheaper for them and less time consuming if they bought a day return on the train and popped up rather than spending a week camped outside the London store.
Mind you I'd be surprised if they could find Liverpool on a map..... It's up north you know.
Have you seen the scallies outside the Regent St Store? Many from less salubrious parts of the EU. The ones in Liverpool are city gents by comparison.
anyway, we should just stop speculating that they have sold (and not shipped to the 'channel' like some other makers) 100, 10000, or even 10,000,000 until Apple release the figures to Wall St.
The we can judge how much of a flop it has been. It can't be a success or there will be few commentards here needing lengthy hospital stays to get over their collective apopletcic shocks.
Works with EE, though, and that's what we have.
However, I expect that when I come to replacement time there will be an alternative for any UK 4g network. My point was simply that the Chinese can now make "good enough" for less than half the iPhone price. A year or so ago that simply wasn't the case.
This is standard Apple operating practice, restrict initial supply and announce delays due to unexpected high demand.
The problem is, no-one has any hard facts to prove or disprove this theory. I tried a quick Google, and I ended up with facts from "people familiar...", which isn't a sound foundation for any hypothesis.
That explains the $100+ Billion of cash Apple is sitting on, they only sell a few phones and ......
Sounds like you are upset because your choice of phone went from retail to junk bin a few days after it was released.
Pick any meaningful metric and Apple is a success, get over it and move on.
You have a point BUT
I feel we need a new EL Reg unit here.
Lets say that '1 Weekend' is the number of Galaxy S5's that were sold the first weekend the nwe can judge the success (or failure) of the latest iPhone release.
If by some freak Apple sell say 10,000,000 and they are sold out for the next month then even the most ardent Apple Haters might (through gridded teeth) admit it was a success.
Just trying to get that number of devices into retailers hands for the launch is a logistics miracle. Only time will tell but one thing is certain, the people in Redmond can only look on and say, 'What if we got it right for once?'
From the article.
"Naturally, she [apple's PR] didn't reveal any numbers to back up that Apple claim"
Why naturally? Apple are about the only company that DO confirm launch weekend sales figures. They always have done. And as a listed company, they are legally bound to ensure the data they give is accurate. Additionally most of their sales figures are the figures for sales to end customers, since slightly more than 50% are sold via Apple stores, and the figures for those Sales are into customers hands. Samsung by contrast a) don't reveal their sales figures b) have let the market be mislead by their partners (tablet sales that weren't where figures issued by their favoured market research partners were vastly inflated and Samsung opted not to let the world know) c) report their sales into trade channels - which during a launch period are generally going to be about 1/3 higher.
AC above:
"This is standard Apple operating practice, restrict initial supply and announce delays due to unexpected high demand.
Every. Single. Time."
It might be a surprise to you but opening weekends start with very high sales, production lines start with relatively lower yields and take time to build up stock. You don't commission factories to output at a capacity that will suit your opening weekend. That would be a ridiculous waste. And you can't spend too long building up stock or you will be losing time launching you next gen. to your competitors. So there is a natural conflict there. You don't know the exact level of initial orders or the rate of decay from the opening weekend peak. So you build up a bit of stock, produce at a rate close to what you estimate average longer term sales will be, and fulfil the peak orders backlog from the opening period as quickly as you can. With a product like the iPhone you won't be able to match that initial peak demand. They will try to though. Many customers aren't nearly so tribal as commenters on this forum and it's madness not to do your best to make the sales as quickly as possible or you will simply be losing a proportion of your sales to your competitors. Anyone who understands retail knows this meme "they deliberately restrict sales" is pure lunacy.
Steve Davis,
"If by some freak Apple sell say 10,000,000 and they are sold out for the next month then even the most ardent Apple Haters might (through gridded teeth) admit it was a success."
Of course they will sell over 10m on the opening weekend, they sold nearly 9 million of the 5S and have increased sales by a third with each successive generation. Most people don't realise this because Samsung's PR dept are actually damned good at spinning out news stories that can be quite misleading. So those reports of the Samsung S5 outselling the 5S on the launch weekend a) naturally didn't point out the upwards curve for all smartphone sales and the fact that because it launched considerably later, the performance wasn't in relative terms so good (this will be clear once the iPhone 6 opening weekend sales figures are available). B) worse, were spun based on comparison of sales levels through mobile operators. Apple sell HALF their handsets through their own Stores (and the majority of the tech press blithely reported the PR spun "news" with no investigation) c) as noted above Apple quote sales to end-users figures, not sales to channel and d) S5 sales figures were in fact bad enough Samsung had a secret emergency sales crisis meeting, news of which leaked out.
Take all that into account and you find this, by Asymco, is the more insightful analysis:
http://www.asymco.com/?s=iPhone+launch+weekend&submit=Go
Keep an eye out for the Asymco analysis after the iPhone 6 launch if you want a nun distorted view. Or you can just continue to read the Register and get a wholly distorted anti Apple propaganda.
"Lets say that '1 Weekend' is the number of Galaxy S5's that were sold the first weekend the nwe can judge the success (or failure) of the latest iPhone release."
Why the first weekend? Why not say.. 6 months in, or 9 months..
Oh. right.. Must count the peak sales days, and extrapolate them to the months when Apple sales are tanking.
Sorry mate.. The "OMG Apple sold more in it's first week than X is not actually a useful figure. Because it neglects the steady sales of pretty much every other company selling pretty much any product throughout the product's life cycle.
Useless single data points are bragging ammunition. Not useful data. Just like the shipped versus sold meme.. If only Apple count that way, then the metric is of no use what so ever, because it gives nothing to compare it to.
It's the same as the toy industry projecting Christmas sales to the rest of the year, and claiming huge profits.
"If by some freak Apple sell say 10,000,000 and they are sold out for the next month then even the most ardent Apple Haters might (through gridded teeth) admit it was a success."
And you imagine we care because?
Apple sells millions.. Meh.
Samsung sells millions.. Meh.
Insert name of company who makes a product that sells millions.. Unless we own it, work for it, or own shares in it.. Meh..
Because we get to see NONE of that money. We understand that that money is not ours to spend. Some small amount of it may once have belonged to us, but that is as far as it goes.
And if they sell out in the first weekend, and have no stock for a month.. that is actually poor supply chain management. Not success.
I do have a question though..
What would be the number that causes you to concede that either model is in fact, a flop?
0?
-1?
@John Baily for the first part of your comment, I couldn't agree more. And guess what, when you do measure lifetime sales that it's clear Apple have been gaining an increasing lead in the premium space. They have consistently sold between 33% more to 100% more handsets than Samsung have sold Galaxy line handsets. Indeed the difference has become so great, Samsung have this year relabelled all their handsets Galaxy, so in future reports, their sales being bested in the high end market will be obscured.
"And you imagine we care because?"
Well I care because I have an app start-up. All the evidence is I stand to make twice the revenues from Apple, so we are coding for iOS first (and yes that is even though Android has much higher market share).
"And if they sell out in the first weekend, and have no stock for a month.. that is actually poor supply chain management. Not success."
You are half correct. As it is a bad idea to run out of stock. However you are underestimating the unique pressures of the balance that has to be struck for a company facing an opening weekend where there is a massively high initial spike. Apple actually have what is generally acknowledged as the best and most powerful supply chain management in the business, bar only probably only Samsung.
"What would be the number that causes you to concede that either model is in fact, a flop?"
Well the 6 plus is a bit more niche, so there's no point in taking its' sales levels in isolation as they will be expected to be less than the 6. This model is about mining the seam as the smartphone market matures.
Combined, anything less than 10 million will be a major disappointment and I think would be considered a flop by Apple, though they would never publicly say obviously.
I know I'm slowing down with age but...
Apple allocate a number of phones for sale prior to announcement.
(these are for retail sale, sale through other shops, sale online, sale other online etc)
Said electro-goodies are then piled up in warehouses ready for dispatch.
A number of people unable to get to (or not wanting to be seen in?) a queue outside a shop, place orders online.
These orders >> number allocated, so all orders delayed?!?
You'd think that those who baggsied a phone first in pre-order before the allocation was reached would get theirs when it was available. Everyone after then has to wait until the next load arrive on blighty's shores.
Is there something I'm missing, save a few neurons?
Well that would seem most fair. However, if you owned shops and made a new product that would pull customers into said shops, would you turn down the opportunity to generate a bit of buzz for your shop visitors, or allow your shops to be a damp squib of inactivity where there is no defined time a customer knows he/she will be able to find the product in the place? It's Apple's choice and an understandable one. They will be dripping supplies into the shops as well, also while there are unfulfilled online orders. That IMO is a bit more unfair. But then on the other hand diverting stock around is a big logistical problem, so it isn't entirely unreasonable to arrange for it to be trickled across a variety of supply routes.
Apple has always invested in its brand, but they've also done very decent work with product definition. Even if the end user did not understand it fully, there was at least something to it technically.
I think this is the first time where it is blindingly obvious that they are milking the brand and margins alone. These are incremental updates at best, at most a 5S+. None of the technology introduced has undergone any specific maturity to justify a delayed release, I was hoping it was being done in the name of product experience, but this is also not the case. The NFC and screens are not different, they would be spinning it any which way possible if this were the case. The other features only help operators get away with a sloppy job.
As for not meeting demand on pre-sales, you'd thing they'd figure out how to deal with the problem over the years, with that cash pile. Perhaps physical storefronts, but certainly no excuse for the online store. Occam's razor implies that they are restricting supplies, likely for the free media hype generation. At the very least it should run out a bit later every year, but it's always a day. Probably helps with the "record sale" marketing spiel that follows opening day. Stats like that are relative so they could just add one more phone to the "day1 preorder inventory" and then claim they beat last years record. If the inventory size is small enough ever year to guarantee exhaustion, you have yourself a guaranteed "record sale" every year.
Re NFC, my belief is Apple didn't want it. There is no use case where iBeacon technology can't be used instead. But in the end their hand was forced because they had to work with the Banks and credit card companies. In case it's not clear, VISA and Mastercard have established a superior position because of acceptance, their physical cards are known and accepted, and not for their business of extending credit. If you have no need of a physical card that tie-in is broken and there will be enhanced competition and many more providers will be able to extend credit. Not least Apple themselves. This fact has not been lost on the credit card companies and is why payments has always been such a difficult nut to crack. IMO the credit card companies have only co-operated because Apple has agreed to their own NFC based transaction authentication solution. You will be able to use Bluetooth to make payments, but that will be treated as cardholder not present. But why, really why should that be the case? An iOS authentication app can be fully secured and registered just as well as your average bank access security key generator app. If access to your bank account is governed by one of those, a payments solution can be integrated just as effectively and securely (or insecurely based on your POV re-smart mobe security - my point being that the Financial Institutions have already accepted a level of security that any payment app can match, so are only pretending to be concerned because they are protecting their oligopoly positions).
Honestly,this would have been all planned.
Not only do they restrict supply, but when they release the weekend sales total it will include all of those unsold 4.7" phones !!
Their version of sales means 'contracted sales'.
They even know the 'record total' weeks in advance.
Hell, I would not even be surprised if 'undelivered to the store warehouse' are also included in sales.
For what it's worth my pre-order still appears to be coming on time (Friday morning). Admittedly I ordered it within 5 minutes of pre-orders opening. Any delays appear to be purely due to allocated stock running out (which, for a fairly popular physical hardware, doesn't sound _too_ far stretched - it still has to be assembled at a certain bounded rate, tested, allocated to one of the launch countries and shipped).
Even if we assume that Apple is run by baby eating evil megalomaniacs in marketing it would be a bit of a stretch to imagine that they are refusing to take your cash purely to demonstrate some 'artificial' shortage.
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