Reports are surfacing that customers who ordered the new iPhone 3GS online may have delayed gratification. Consumers checking their package tracking status were shocked to discover that the delivery date, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was quietly shifted to Friday or even Monday.
A few unlucky souls were left with no shipping date but an ambiguous message: “the receiver requested a hold for a future delivery date” or “the package is being held for a future delivery date.”
According to UPS’s “package progress” feed, “The receiver [i.e., Apple] requested a hold for a future delivery date. UPS will attempt delivery on date requested.”
Meantime, Apple has released the iPhone OS 3.0 software update as expected. And AT&T, the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone, on Wednesday decided to let more customers buy the iPhone 3GS at the fully subsidized price. That price was originally only for new customers or those who qualified for an upgrade a year after buying the iPhone 3G, but the company said those who would qualify in July through September will be able to buy the 16GB iPhone 3GS for $199 and the 32GB iPhone 3GS for $299.
Minor Glitch
Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret, said Apple’s request to UPS was not a sign of production difficulties, but simply an effort to better regulate deliveries.
“I don’t think we’re seeing delays as much as an effort to make sure devices don’t ship before they’re supposed to,” Gartenberg said. “In terms of demand, we’ve seen pre-orders sell out, it seems, from AT&T, so it appears that consumers are appreciating the performance enhancements along with the new features.”
While noting that Apple has occasionally had production issues in the past, analyst Greg Sterling, founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, agreed that the delays are a minor issue. The bigger story, he said, is the…