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iPhone 5c Lead Times Are Starting To Elongate

Chuck Jones
Senior Contributor
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
I cover technology companies, worldwide economies and the stock market
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This article is more than 10 years old.

The lead times for the iPhone 5c at the various Apple country websites (U.S., Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and the U.K) are now showing ship dates later than Friday, September 20. I have been tracking the delivery dates at these nine countries (Japan says to check in the stores and Puerto Rico does not have its own website) where Apple is making the 5c available along with the Verizon, AT&T , Sprint and T-Mobile sites. I also tracked these same sites for the iPhone 5. (Note that my family and I own Apple shares.) 

Image via CrunchBase

On the Apple websites the lead times for the 5c are typically running 3 to 5 business days (September 23 to 25) as of Wednesday vs. September 20 last Sunday (except for Hong Kong which was 1 to 2 weeks). For the carriers Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are still showing September 20 availability and AT&T is at 3 to 5 business days.

For the iPhone 5 a year ago the Apple stores had 3 to 4 week lead times the week before it was due to ship on September 21 as did the carriers. It took until the middle of November until the lead times shrunk to 2 to 3 weeks at the Apple stores and it was late October/early November for the carriers. I have developed a Google Doc that has the dates and lead times for the iPhone 5c and 5 for the Apple stores and carriers which I will update. 

There are multiple reasons for the shorter lead times for the 5c with the three most likely ones being: 

1)   The 5 was a different form factor than the 4S (bigger screen being the largest difference) which meant the manufacturing ramp was more difficult than what the 5c has gone through.

2)   Lower demand for the 5c which isn’t too surprising given it is only $100 lower than the 5s.

3) The 5c is less of a functionality upgrade then the 5 was vs. the 4S. 

The next catalyst for the stock should be Monday, September 23. Apple has announced the first weekend sales starting with the iPhone 3 selling one million to the iPhone 5 selling over 5 million. Expectations for the iPhone 5c and 5s are running around 5 to 6 million. 

Follow me on Twitter @sandhillinsight. Find my other Forbes posts here.

Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones