iPhone Scarcity

I’ve been in the market for an iPhone since my Blackjack met an unfortunate end at the hands of a rouge wave back in April. My plan was use an old phone or one from work until the 3G iPhone was released and get one of those. I didn’t want to wait in line, but I figured after a week or so the hoopla would die down and I’d pick one up then.

Well, as it turns out, the hoopla hasn’t died down and it’s still tough to get one. I made an attempt the other day at the Danbury, CT Apple store since the Apple website indicated they were in stock there. Alas, it was not to be – they were out of stock when I got there. According to the employee I talked to, they get a shipment in every day. The shipment varies in size and doesn’t always arrive at the same time. There’s a line outside the store every day when they open, and they usually sell out.

This sounds to me like an artificial attempt to keep the phone scarce and to keep the attention level up. The best way to get people to want something is to make it seem difficult to get and “exclusive”. And every day, people are lined up outside the store. Free publicity!

So Plan B is to go to an AT&T store and order one there. A friend of mine did it that way – no waiting in line, they call you when the phone comes in and you go pick it up and activate it. And it only took a week or so. Hopefully, it will work out just as well for me.