By Chris Nicholls
SYDNEY: Despite massive hype and predictions of limited supply, it appears Australians have taken slowly to the iPhone, with both Optus and Vodafone saying they still had stock left at most stores as of this morning.
Vodafone mass and brand PR manager, Jessica Forrest, said they had had “an amazing response” from their customers, but admitted most stores had stock left.
“It’s probably too early to say where we’re at in terms of stock”, she said, but confirmed Vodafone hadn’t “sold out yet; we do have stock on the floor,” she said.
She said anyone who did find their local store was without stock would still be able to fill out paperwork and purchase one, but delivery will be a “few days after”, with customers informed of an exact date at the store.
An Optus spokesperson said they did not have figures available, re-stating that stock was limited, but a source within the company said they too had not heard of any stock shortages.
“There was a lot of buzz … and it seems to have gone well. I haven’t heard any negative feedback,” the source said, adding that they had not heard of any shop selling out.
While the source could not divulge the number of iPhones Optus had received, they said Optus was “guaranteed to receive some every week”, so the predicted supply issues should not materialise.
“It’s not like we’re running out of all of it now and then we won’t get any for a couple of weeks. We’re getting it weekly. Apple has promised that they’ll just keep giving them to us every week,” they said.
Vodafone also revealed they had sold more black 16 GB models than any other, despite the increased cost.
“The black 16 GB has been the most popular device, so I think Australians are really educated in terms of the amount of data they’re downloading and they’ve been through the iPod revolution, where they’ve thought about how much storage space they need on their device and the 16 GB model is proving really popular,” said Forrest.