iPhone 5S now in even shorter supply, says analyst
Available stock of Apple's top-of-the-line iPhone has tightened over the past three weeks, says analyst Gene Munster.
The iPhone 5S is now playing even harder to get.
Over the past three weeks, availability of the new high-end iPhone has dropped to less than 5 percent of all iPhone models, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in an investor note released Friday. That contrasts with the 6 percent availability previously cited by the analyst for the week ending October 11.
Following the launch of the 5S on September 20, the new model accounted for 27 percent of all iPhones in stock, Munster said. But that number plummeted as consumer demand shot up.
When might the iPhone 5S become less scarce? Munster noted that the supply of the earlier iPhone 5 didn't catch up with demand until early December last year. So, we could be looking at the same scenario for the 5S. Apple's online store currently shows an estimated ship date for the 5S of two to three weeks.
The analyst derives his data by tracking iPhone 5S supply at 60 different US Apple retail stores three times a week.