The Macalope Daily: Sell-out-gate
[Editor’s Note: The Macalope Daily is an exclusive benefit for our Macworld Insider members, but is being made available to all Macworld readers for a limited time. To learn more about this and other features, visit our Macworld Insider information page.]
The Macalope will put it to you, his dashing, astute, and virile readers, that there is no news so good for Apple that someone somewhere won’t try to spin its gold into straw.
The Age’s Asher Moses asks “iStunt? Apple iPhone 5 ‘sell-out’ questioned” (tip o’ the antlers to Steven).
iPhone 5 pre-orders are almost sold out ahead of Friday’s launch, leading some Apple faithful…
Bzzzzt.
…and marketing experts to question whether the sell-outs are deliberately engineered by the company for marketing reasons.
Of course! Because in a capitalist system it’s so much better to not … sell … your products to … erm, run that by the Macalope again?
Australian journalist Matthew Powell, who has covered Apple for decades, said Apple CEO Tim Cook was known as one of the smartest operations guys in the business so “would have known exactly how many units were required and where they needed to be allocated”.
Well, Cook may know how many devices he wishes he had, but that doesn’t mean Apple’s suppliers can have them all ready on day one.
Also, not to take exception to Powell’s street cred, but how can he be one of the “Apple faithful” if the Macalope’s never seen him at any of the meetings? Whoops, said too much.
“By doing the allocations this way, Apple gets two stories - ‘pre-orders sellout’ and ‘queues around the block on launch day’,” he said. “If it isn’t deliberate it’s awfully fortuitous.”
You know what’s even more fortuitous and looks even more awesome? Selling a crapton of iPhones. The Macalope’s not saying Apple isn’t somehow gaming the system to make sure there are lines, but here’s the thing: They’re probably going to sell out at the stores, too. And while lines do make for good press, long wait times, lack of product, and being taunted by Apple bloggers make for angry customers.
The Macalope firmly believes that if Apple could make all the phones it needed to satisfy demand on day one, it would. It certainly wouldn’t make people wait weeks to get one. Not every customer is going to wait a month for an iPhone. Just the ones with the best taste.
The reason the iPhone 5 “sold out” faster than the 4S is probably because people were actually able to buy them earlier.
If Apple is making people line up to get a phone, people are still lining up because they want an iPhone. Unlike some other companies that have to use other promotions to get people to line up at their stores.
The Macalope’s not naming any names.
Cough.
Oh. How’d that link get in there?
[Editors’ Note: Each week the Macalope skewers the worst of the week’s coverage of Apple and other technology companies. In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.]
http://www.macworld.com/article/2010287/macalope-sell-out-gate.html
