iPhone 5s showing 90% availability in US retail stores
With an abundance of glowing reviews, the biggest mark against the iPhone 5s has simply been that the device, for some time now, has been incredibly hard to find. Not too long ago, for example, I remember walking into Apple's flagship retail store in Chicago where I was told that the only iPhone 5s they had in stock was a 64 GB AT&T model in Space Gray.
With the busy holiday shopping season now in full swing, it finally appears that supply of the iPhone 5s is catching up with demand. The news comes courtesy of a survey from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, which found that 90 percent of the color/capacity/carrier combinations of iPhone 5s models are available in Apple retail stores. By way of comparison, a similar survey carried out by Munster just two weeks ago yielded a 31 percent availability figure.
MacRumors got its hands on the full report, which reads in part:
Total available iPhone 5s SKUs (excluding unlocked) have increased to 90% from 31% two weeks ago, and 10% at the beginning of October. Separately, we note that the lightest stocked store we checked had 67% of available SKUs. We view the improvement in supply as an encouraging sign that Apple has begun to catch up to demand. We continue to believe that Apple will reach supply-demand equilibrium by early December.
