IPhone 6 Plus Supplies Start to Sell Out in Some U.S. Stores

IPhone 6 Plus Supplies Start to Sell Out in Some U.S. Stores

Scott Moritz, Olga Kharif and Denni Hu

Bloomberg

Apple Inc.’s larger iPhone 6 Plus is already selling out at some stores across the U.S.

The Apple store on the Upper West Side in Manhattan is out of the iPhone 6 Plus already, even as a line for reservations spilled into a concert hall next door and a regular line snaked up two blocks. Some phone carriers’ stores in Manhattan were also selling out of limited supplies of the iPhone 6 Plus this morning. In downtown Portland, Oregon, customers in line have said the bigger model is sold out already.

Even before the first day of sales, there were signs that supply of the new device may not meet demand. During the first 24 hours of record pre-orders a week ago, the iPhone 6 Plus, which has a larger display, started having shipping delays of three to four weeks, while some iPhone 6 models faced delays of seven to 10 days.

In Portland, Cory Nguyen, a 19-year-old college student, said he was planning to get an iPhone 6 Plus until he heard employees tell people in line that they had run out of the bigger device. He’s instead settling for two iPhone 6 models that he plans to resell.

“I know people,” Nguyen said. “Everyone wants an iPhone. It’s high demand. It’s extra cash. Students -- trying to make a buck.”

Representatives for Apple didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Sales Forecasts

Carl Howe, an analyst at 451 Research LLC, said Apple may sell 12 million to 15 million new devices this weekend. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., wrote in a note to investors that he’s projecting sales of 7 million to 8 million, which would fall short of last year’s first weekend sales of 9 million units of the iPhone 5s and 5c. Sacconaghi attributed it partly to supply constraints and to the fact that China isn’t one of the first countries selling the devices.

A Sprint Corp. store at 42nd Street in Manhattan had no iPhone 6 Plus devices as of 8:30 a.m. New York time, and the AT&T Inc. store at 46th Street and Madison Avenue was sold out of the model. An employee outside the AT&T store said they started with only a couple and were telling customers they could place orders for November delivery.

“At this time, Sprint’s inventory on iPhone 6 Plus is extremely limited and we are in heavy backorder,” Michelle Mermelstein, a Sprint spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “Customers can order this device thorough any of our retail channels with a delivery time of 4-6 weeks.”

At a T-Mobile store at 8:45 a.m. New York time all but one iPhone was sold out. The remaining phone was a 6 with 128 gigabytes of storage. A store employee said they were expecting a resupply later today. Anne Marshall, a T-Mobile US Inc. spokeswoman, said the company was restocking as quickly as possible. She said she wasn’t optimistic that there would be much of the iPhone 6 Plus available.