I decided to buy a new iPhone. Great news.
I call one of the biggest stores of the Apples local exclusive distributor.
- Can I buy an iPhone 3GS at your store?
- We do not have it in stock, but you can order it.
- When would I get it?
- At the moment, waiting period is appr. 4 months. Which is not that bad, because I know quite a few of our stores which already stopped taking orders for the new iPhone.
As 4 months seems quite a long time, I call one of the major retailer chains, which also distributes iPhones here in Belgium.
- Can I buy / order an iPhone?
- Yes you can.
- When would I get it?
- No slightest idea. We still havent got a single phone from Apple.
Third call to another chain.
Same answer as in the first one, except for the fact that they do get a very small amount of iPhones, but nevertheless the waiting period is also here close to indefinite.
And in the end I call a small Apple dealer nearby.
- Yes you can order an iPhone.
- And whats about waiting period?
- At the moment, -- says this honest guy, -- we have a line of several hundreds orders. Per week were getting one or two iPhones. So do the math.
He also told me that the real waiting time at the Apples local exclusive distributor is 6-8 months.
The funny thing is that if I order an iPhone right now, -- and if Ill be lucky -- I could receive one by the time the new generation will be announced and rolled out.
So it could be smarter for me to wait till this new generation and buy then a better iPhone.
But on second thoughts, with such amazing distribution I probably wont get this new iPhone roughly until the coming of the newest generation -- and so on and so forth.
Does anyone have any idea whats going on?
Is this a matter of a clumsy local operator not able to get his acts together? Could it be that this operator is slowing things down while lobbying right to lock the iPhone exclusively to their network (its still forbidden here, thank God)? Is this a matter of a wrong assessment of the market potential by Apple? Just global shortage? Gods special punishment of Belgium?
Does anybody know whether the situation will change to the better in the foreseeable future, I mean while I'm still alive?
I call one of the biggest stores of the Apples local exclusive distributor.
- Can I buy an iPhone 3GS at your store?
- We do not have it in stock, but you can order it.
- When would I get it?
- At the moment, waiting period is appr. 4 months. Which is not that bad, because I know quite a few of our stores which already stopped taking orders for the new iPhone.
As 4 months seems quite a long time, I call one of the major retailer chains, which also distributes iPhones here in Belgium.
- Can I buy / order an iPhone?
- Yes you can.
- When would I get it?
- No slightest idea. We still havent got a single phone from Apple.
Third call to another chain.
Same answer as in the first one, except for the fact that they do get a very small amount of iPhones, but nevertheless the waiting period is also here close to indefinite.
And in the end I call a small Apple dealer nearby.
- Yes you can order an iPhone.
- And whats about waiting period?
- At the moment, -- says this honest guy, -- we have a line of several hundreds orders. Per week were getting one or two iPhones. So do the math.
He also told me that the real waiting time at the Apples local exclusive distributor is 6-8 months.
The funny thing is that if I order an iPhone right now, -- and if Ill be lucky -- I could receive one by the time the new generation will be announced and rolled out.
So it could be smarter for me to wait till this new generation and buy then a better iPhone.
But on second thoughts, with such amazing distribution I probably wont get this new iPhone roughly until the coming of the newest generation -- and so on and so forth.
Does anyone have any idea whats going on?
Is this a matter of a clumsy local operator not able to get his acts together? Could it be that this operator is slowing things down while lobbying right to lock the iPhone exclusively to their network (its still forbidden here, thank God)? Is this a matter of a wrong assessment of the market potential by Apple? Just global shortage? Gods special punishment of Belgium?
Does anybody know whether the situation will change to the better in the foreseeable future, I mean while I'm still alive?
