The iPhone 4S goes on sale on October 14th (tomorrow.) Since October 7th, exactly 1 week before the afore mentioned launch, Verizon, AT&T and Sprint all started accepting pre-orders. Even in the first few hours, AT&T had sold over 200,000 phones. So much was the demand that many consumers had trouble ordering their newest Apple product online.
It seems that so many iPhone 4S’ were pre-ordered that the initial batch of consumers were able to lock in the initial stock after the first day. People who are just signing up to get the phone now can expect to wait for another 3 or 4 weeks.
The truly staggering point in all this, as Apple announced earlier, is that the iPhone 4S has been pre-ordered on their web store more than 1 million times! Many who are planning to wake up and stand in line in front of a carrier’s retail store in the wee hours of the morning in a few hours might be disappointed that their long wait yields no iPhones, the reason being that it’s not in stock.
The huge influx of orders might have been brought on by the fact that Apple waited an extra-long time to launch the new generation of its iconic product. Instead of launching during the summer as was expected, Apple announced the 4S in early October. Many who waited throughout the summer will be duly rewarded for their patience. And perhaps this wait also allows more people to be eligible for an upgrade, hence raising the numbers. The astounding demand might also be due to the passing of Steve Jobs, Apple’s long time CEO and tech innovator. People might be flocking to the last iPhone that was designed with Jobs as a key influencer on the product, buying it for sentimental reasons. Or it might simply be that since the 4S will sort the same chip as the iPad 2 or include new features like SIRI, people just can’t help themselves.
Whatever the reason for the demand, the iPhone 4S is on track to become the most sought after iPhone yet. Apple, it seems, is still on top of the world. And with a stock of $408.43 per share, how can you blame them?
