Edward Kirk
July 9th, 2008, 02:22 AM
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O2 Sales Director Stephen Shurrock has said in a message to potential customers that they are expecting an iPhone 3G shortage that will last weeks due an unexpectedly high demand for the device. According to the message, their systems were knocked out during the swarm of online orders, and stores have since sold out of stock. <!--break-->
It is now known that the company's registration page wasn't just a notification service, but was a method of measuring demand for the new device to be relayed to Apple in order to gauge how many of the device would be needed. The response showed that there were vastly more people wanting an iPhone then they had stock of.
"To put it in context we had over 200,000 people expressing interest and only a very small proportion of that number of devices available," he says. "Faced with this dilemma, we made it clear in the communications that to be fair to all customers the orders would be managed on a first come first served basis, as stock was limited. The response was so great that the online store completely sold out of iPhones within just a few hours."
Their system was recieving orders 13,000 times every second, which was far too much for their system, even with 250 times the performance capacity and backups in place. "We just weren’t prepared for this unprecedented level of demand," Shurrock adds. "No website is."
In-store demand will also likely be a concern. Each store is being given just a "few dozen" phones for launch day, and shipments will only come in once a week, which they fear will not be enough to keep up with the initial demand.
"We have been working continuously with them [Apple] to get as much stock for the UK as possible," says Shurrock. "Unfortunately, they have only been able to supply a small proportion of the number of phones we asked for, because they are launching simultaneously in 22 countries."
"We are confident that over time we will start to get sufficient volume to meet demand, but it is likely that stock will be in very short supply for some weeks to come," Shurrock says.
Shurrock also says that Apple Stores are being given more than O2 stores in the UK.
[via <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/07/08/o2_uk_warns_of_weeks_long_iphone_3g_shortage_ahead .html" target="_blank">AppleInsider</a>]
<b>Update:</b> It looks like O2 isn't the only carrier anticipating short supplies on the 11th. Telstra Vodaphone and Optus are <a href="http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/07/08/iphone.shortages.expected/" target="_blank">claiming</a> that together they will have just 80,000 between the two companies, meaning painfully short supplies for the first few weeks.</div>
O2 Sales Director Stephen Shurrock has said in a message to potential customers that they are expecting an iPhone 3G shortage that will last weeks due an unexpectedly high demand for the device. According to the message, their systems were knocked out during the swarm of online orders, and stores have since sold out of stock. <!--break-->
It is now known that the company's registration page wasn't just a notification service, but was a method of measuring demand for the new device to be relayed to Apple in order to gauge how many of the device would be needed. The response showed that there were vastly more people wanting an iPhone then they had stock of.
"To put it in context we had over 200,000 people expressing interest and only a very small proportion of that number of devices available," he says. "Faced with this dilemma, we made it clear in the communications that to be fair to all customers the orders would be managed on a first come first served basis, as stock was limited. The response was so great that the online store completely sold out of iPhones within just a few hours."
Their system was recieving orders 13,000 times every second, which was far too much for their system, even with 250 times the performance capacity and backups in place. "We just weren’t prepared for this unprecedented level of demand," Shurrock adds. "No website is."
In-store demand will also likely be a concern. Each store is being given just a "few dozen" phones for launch day, and shipments will only come in once a week, which they fear will not be enough to keep up with the initial demand.
"We have been working continuously with them [Apple] to get as much stock for the UK as possible," says Shurrock. "Unfortunately, they have only been able to supply a small proportion of the number of phones we asked for, because they are launching simultaneously in 22 countries."
"We are confident that over time we will start to get sufficient volume to meet demand, but it is likely that stock will be in very short supply for some weeks to come," Shurrock says.
Shurrock also says that Apple Stores are being given more than O2 stores in the UK.
[via <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/07/08/o2_uk_warns_of_weeks_long_iphone_3g_shortage_ahead .html" target="_blank">AppleInsider</a>]
<b>Update:</b> It looks like O2 isn't the only carrier anticipating short supplies on the 11th. Telstra Vodaphone and Optus are <a href="http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/07/08/iphone.shortages.expected/" target="_blank">claiming</a> that together they will have just 80,000 between the two companies, meaning painfully short supplies for the first few weeks.</div>