Online iPhone 5 availability now improving to 2-4 business days

In another display of Apple catching up to iPhone demand, the company’s online store in New Zealand is now quoting 2-4 business days for deliveries. It was only a week ago that the New Zealand store indicated shipping times were improving to one week. Prior to that, it took Apple about a month following the iPhone 5 launch to improve delivery times for online orders from 2-3 weeks to one week. The online US store gave us a one-week shipping estimate at press time but we’re expecting international stores to follow suit and update estimates later in the day…

Analyst Gene Munster in October warned that iPhone 5 supply was “extremely limited”. Mid-November, fellow watcher Sterne Agee’ Shawn Wu reported the iPhone 5 supply crunch had “much improved”.

Wu predicted Apple would sell 46.5 million smartphones during the December quarter, just below Munster’s forecast of 49 million units.

What are you seeing?

Has iPhone availability in your country’s online Apple store improved to 2-4 business days yet?