Did Apple Deliberately Limit the Availability of Gold iPhone?
Jim Edwards, writing for BusinessInsider:
Do you own a gold iPhone 5S? No, of course not.
That’s because there aren’t any.
Let’s qualify that: Gold iPhones exist. They are just very rare.
And you don’t have one.
After visiting my local Apple Store and several Mobile Carriers on Friday, I’m at pains to admit that I was one of those unlucky ones to walk away without a Gold iPhone. I was told that the Gold iPhone 5s was unavailable.
Jim Edwards points to the following reports as evidence that Apple has deliberated limited the supply of the Gold iPhone:
- O2, the major European carrier, has zero gold iPhones.
- Verizon on Wall Street has zero gold iPhones.
- The entire continent of Australia has zero gold iPhones.
- Apple’s flagship store in San Francisco had only 20 gold iPhones.
- There has been a vast under-estimation of Asian demand for gold iPhones, where the device is also sold out.
Edwards also suggests that there is no excuse for Apple not making enough Gold iPhone available, since it consists of readily available materials.
“The gold iPhone is NOT made of real gold, it’s made of anodized aluminum colored gold,” Jim Edwards explains. “The price of aluminum has actually declined during the year in which Apple began planning for its gold iPhone supply — so the idea that there might be a shortage of gold-dyed aluminum is just silly.”
Personally, I’m not buying into this particular conspiracy theory, I’m sure there is a plausible explanation for this.
A recent report from the WSJ, suggest that Apple has asked suppliers to increase production of the gold-colored iPhone 5S by an extra one-third after seeing strong demand.
It will be a real shame if Apple has actually manufacture a limited number of Gold iPhone 5s based on the negative press it received prior to launch. This will end up being a very costly mistake, for the Cupertino-based company.
