iPhone 6 Plus Shipments Delayed By A Month Or More

Steve Jobs might have hated the screen size of the iPhone 6 Plus, but it appears Tim Cook and the rest of the U.S. absolutely loves the phablet’s dimensions. While the two newest smartphones from the Cupertino company won’t actually be available in the United States until September 19, both were available for preorder on Friday, September 12.

There had been talk Apple hadn’t actually produced enough of the 5.5-inch screens to actually meet demand, but those rumors couldn’t be confirmed until people actually started buying them. As it turns out, the talk was 100 percent accurate, as it didn’t take long for even those who preordered rather quickly to see they were going to have to wait for a month or more until their new devices would arrive.

“Response to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has been incredible, with a record number of pre-orders overnight. Pre-orders are currently available online or through the Apple Store App,” spokeswoman Trudy Muller said, according to the Business Times.

While record numbers of preorders for both phones have been recorded, there doesn’t appear to be a delay for the 4.7-inch version just yet. PC Magazine says no one has reported they won’t be getting their smaller version anytime after September 19, while the Plus is seeing wait times of more than six weeks through some outlets.

If you were one of those who just couldn’t quite pull the trigger on the purchase, but kept going back to a site like Sprint to weigh your options over and over, you likely got a first hand look at just how demand for the device was driving the wait time. Around nine in the morning, Sprint had laid claim to enough 5.5-inch phones to only be showing a one to two week delay on a customer’s order. Just an hour later, the wait turned into two to three weeks. By the afternoon, every was getting the standard three to four week delivery time.

The real question is just how quickly Apple can stock back up and whether or not there will eventually be wait times for the 4.7-inch version as people get frustrated with their iPhone 6 Plus wait times. While there had been some debate over just how much demand there would even be for a smartphone with such a big screen, it appears doubts over its popularity were not well founded.

Part of the draw of the bigger phone has to be it actually seems to perform better, at least when it comes to battery life. Apple’s units have never had great power conservation, but the iPhone 6 Plus claims to be able to offer 24 hours of battery time before it needs to charge up again.