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AAPL Stock: 509.46 ( 0 )

White iPhone 3GS in low numbers across US

updated 09:30 am EDT, Tue July 7, 2009

White iPhone 3GS shortages


The white 16GB iPhone 3GS is proving to be the most popular by far in the US, Apple stock tracking shows. As of Tuesday morning, the phone model is missing in 30 out of 41 states in which Apple Stores are located, along with the District of Columbia. Elsewhere shortages are so severe that in California, Apple's home state, only one out of 45 retail outlets has white 16GB units.

Likewise, only one out of nine stores in Massachusetts has the phone; the ratios shift to one in seven for Illinois, one in six for Virginia, and one in three for New York City. The black 16GB 3GS is also in short supply in many areas, but should be available in greater quantities than its white counterpart. Both colors of the 32GB phone are generally in wide supply.

Apple notes that the 8GB iPhone 3G should be available in every Apple Store, and that the 3GS is restocked on "most days" of the week. The demand for white phones may potentially prove problematic for Apple, as a number of them have become discolored from overheating. Black iPhones have so far escaped permanent damage.


by MacNN Staff

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Comments

  1. joecab

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2004

    +5

    what "most popular" means

    I wouldn't call that "most popular"; it's just the rarest one to find at a store because supplies are low. I think the black model sells more. Apple just didn't anticipate demand for the white one.

  1. chas_m

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    +6

    Faulty logic

    Apple may have made fewer white ones, so it's inconclusive whether they are "more popular" than the black ones. It would have been sufficient (and correct) to simply say that white phones are in shorter supply than black ones.

  1. NickS

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jul 2009

    +4

    Pff

    I wanted a black one, but all they had was white. I definitely agree it's forced rarity through minimal supply.

  1. BDLatimer

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2005

    +3

    False statements

    The indication that "…a number of them have become discolored from overheating" is false. The reality is that the problem is caused by overheating of the case the iPhone is in at the time; there is zero proof that the phone discolors on its own.

    C'mon, MacNN. Can you at least link to the article which discusses this in more detail?

    http://gizmodo.com/5308365/white-iphone-discoloration-actually-caused-by-crappy-cases-maybe

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