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iPhone 5S supply may not reach demand until December

The pattern would follow the same one marked by the iPhone 5 a year ago, says Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
Lance Whitney
Apple's iPhone 5S may not meet demand for at least a couple more months.
Apple's iPhone 5S may not meet demand for at least a couple more months. Apple

Apple's supply of the iPhone 5S may not catch up with demand until early December. At least, that's the forecast from analyst Gene Munster.

In an investors' note out Thursday, Munster said that Apple's online stores in the US, the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and China all forecast a ship time of October for the 5S. In Japan, the gold 5S was listed as unavailable, and customers were advised to check their local stores.

The analyst believes the 5S will mimic its precedessor in supply and demand.

"By comparison, the iPhone 5 did not reach supply/demand equilibrium based on online shipping times until early December," Munster said. "It appears that the 5S could follow the same pattern based on early ship time tracking."

Apple Stores also are facing shortages of the 5S. Checking 20 US Apple Stores on Wednesday, Munster's team found the 5S in stock in only 35 percent of them.