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16 GB 3G Massively Understocked, underhanded move by apple

J

JS82189

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 30, 2010
115
0
All of the stores were sold out of 16 GB 3G's by 5:30 in my area... 5:30... sales started at 5:00...

this was a move by apple to get people to just go 'o wat the heck heres another $100 give me my iPad now'...

i mean if 2 stores are out of stock by 5:30, that is ridiculous
 
really understocked?

cmon.

with all the media hype i thought that the 3g's were going to sell out or something. i went to the grove (los angeles) location.. one of the larger southern california stores at like 8:30 and picked up a 16gig 3g without any hassle.

they had a bunch sitting behind the counter. :confused:
 
unless if you have any solid concrete proof, its just an opinion and pure speculation.

nothing wrong with having an opinion, but consider some basic rules in retail:
-the lowest price point of any popular product will see the most sales.
-retailers sell what they have, no point in holding back merchandise. they cannot create "markets" by doing underhanded sales tactics.
-you can't base your decision by what you see at one or two stores.

I am sorry to hear you didn't get the iPad that you wanted. When purchasing during the launch or frenzy phase, it's going to be tough. Maybe after things settle and stock stabilizes they will all be available in equal amounts.

you can never predict what any given market will do. You can only guess at first and then react to what the market demands. I really don't see a company like Apple who has such a strong marketing sense purposely under stocking units just to create more demand and hype. They create the demand with pull marketing - they create an item and pull the crowd in.

Actually they threw a leash around my neck and dragged me in. I'm a sucker for anything apple anytime.
 
My friend who works at the Apple Store said they received more or less the same amounts of all 3 versions. He said that the first 30 or so people in line were mostly buying the 16 and some were buying 2 of them. Probably for resale. But regardless he said that 16 just was highest in demand and sold the fastest.
 
Here is proof.

I was in line at 5:15 at the local store and had someone get there at 3:30 as well. By the 14th person in line, they had no more 16gb versions. And not every person in the first 14 went with the 16gb.

I don't care either way as I wanted a 32, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were fewer 16s in shipped vs. 32 and 64. It's smart business - make the early adopters pay as much as possible. Plus it fuels the "ipads are sold out" message.

I switched my wifi one for 32gb because it would not recognize Bluetooth and wifi reception was weak. Worked fine otherwise. Very smooth transaction that was pre-authorized by the manager.

Now I can connect everywhere with it, even on the boat.
 
I already have 22GB of videos on mine. The iPad makes video viewing a pleasure. Wouldn't be surprised to see some of those 16gb models back at the store in a day or two.

Which reminds me - how hard could it have been to add a microsd slot to this thing? :rolleyes:
 
ZBoater said:
I already have 22GB of videos on mine. The iPad makes video viewing a pleasure. Wouldn't be surprised to see some of those 16gb models back at the store in a day or two.

Which reminds me - how hard could it have been to add a microsd slot to this thing? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Very hard, they can't even build in a USB port, which would let you use any storage device, not just microsd.

Are you mostly watching those videos at home? Majority of people who watch those in bed, probably could save most of the space by streaming it from their home PC via AirVideo. It's just too bad Apple hasn't develop an application to stream from AirDisk or something like that.
 
This same conspiracy theory crap cropped up whe the initial 16gb wifi stocks started to sell out. It's not Apple's fault if you refuse to either pre-order or exercise enough self-control to wait a few days for the model you actually want.
 
gwynne said:
This same conspiracy theory crap cropped up whe the initial 16gb wifi stocks started to sell out. It's not Apple's fault if you refuse to either pre-order or exercise enough self-control to wait a few days for the model you actually want.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

It's simple Business 101...it's not uncommon that the lowest price model of any given line sells more quickly than the more expensive ones. So unless the OP has any data that details Apples' production runs for the 16g units then this thread is pure speculation and conspiracy theory.

Also, as others have mentioned consumers had the option of pre-ordering or simply ordering a 16g unit on-line. Last time I looked at Apple on-line, I didn't see any indication that the 16g units were sold out and only the more expensive models were available. If Apple were trying to manipulate sales volume as the OP claims I would have expected the 16g models to be "out of stock".
 
The cheaper model always sells out faster. This was the case with the iPhone 3G as well.
 
I don't know all of the calculations Apple used to determine the right mix of capacities to make, but I'm pretty confident it wasn't about tricking people into upsells.

The same assembly line or lines makes every iPad model. Making more of one means you're making less of the others. My guess (could be wrong) is that higher capacity models have higher profit margins per unit. If that's correct, it would be painful for Apple to have early adopters get downsold because the 64gb or 32gb unit they wanted wasn't available, so they get the next mode down. They are probably more worried about that than they are about the opposite situation, but that isn't the same as plotting to make it happen.

Also, when I was in line, Apple Store employees kept walking around asking everyone what capacities they wanted. The reason was so they could start warning people who joined the line later that their preferred model might be sold out. Very nice of them. But the reason I bring it up is that the people I could hear answer seemed to mention all three sizes about equally, with 32gb probably the least common answer by a small margin. Obviously this is not scientific, but I think there was also high demand for the 64gb version by people who either just don't want to worry about it, or who want to load a lot of media. If I'd done less research, I'd have gotten a 64gb "just to be safe".
 
My local Best Buy in Chico only got 5 64GB models. That's it... Luckilly, that's what I wanted and I was number 5! :D
 
I wouldn't be surprised if the 16gb was the most understocked relative to it's demand - ie, same # of units available for each model, even though more people want the 16 over the 64.
 
AC10 said:
I was in line at 5:15 at the local store and had someone get there at 3:30 as well. By the 14th person in line, they had no more 16gb versions. And not every person in the first 14 went with the 16gb.

I don't care either way as I wanted a 32, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were fewer 16s in shipped vs. 32 and 64. It's smart business - make the early adopters pay as much as possible. Plus it fuels the "ipads are sold out" message.

I switched my wifi one for 32gb because it would not recognize Bluetooth and wifi reception was weak. Worked fine otherwise. Very smooth transaction that was pre-authorized by the manager.

Now I can connect everywhere with it, even on the boat.
Click to expand...

I'm on a boat
 
3goldens said:
They probaly did not make as many of these as it's such a small capacity and they probably figured who the hell would want them anyway?
Click to expand...

I do, don't see the need for me to spend almost 900 on the 64 gig. 16 or 32 is perfect for my needs.
 
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