Apple loves a good launch, but the company may have been too good at hyping up the latest iPhone. Apple announced on Thursday that the iPhone 7 Plus is already sold out in all colors before it has even hit shelves. (Life comes at you fast sometimes.) Jet-black models of the smaller version of the iPhone 7 also sold out during the pre-order process, which means that iPhone 7s were supposed to hit stores tomorrow, but don’t go lining up at your local Apple store to get your hands on the new phones. They’re all gone.
The iPhone 7 looks almost identical to the iPhone 6—except for the crucial exclusion of a headphone jack. To hell with simplicity and convenience: headphone jacks are so 2015. That tiny hole was such an eyesore on the older models. Apple also introduced the new jet black color option (totally different than black) and fancy new features for the 7 Plus, like dual rear cameras that allow for better zooming—fancy new features that you will have to wait for if you didn’t order ahead of time. “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,” said Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller.
So there’s no official word yet on when exactly more phones will be available in stores. Apple brazenly warned folks that their latest toy would sell out: Last week, Apple said that, for the first time ever, it would not disclose opening weekend sales for the new model. “In years past, we’ve announced how many new iPhones had been sold as of the first weekend following launch,” Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet said. “But as we have expanded our distribution through carriers and resellers to hundreds of thousands of locations around the world, we are now at a point where we know before taking the first customer preorder that we will sell out of iPhone 7.”
And sell out they did. Apple decided to base initial sales of the iPhone 7 on supply rather than demand, and the supply has run out (shares, meanwhile, are up). You can still order a new iPhone 7 Plus online, but wait times for some models are pushed all the way to November. But waiting for a phone to show up is probably still better than waiting for a phone to explode.
[via CNET]