‘Limited quantities’ of iPhone 7 available at retail stores

Don’t expect to go into an Apple store Friday and walk out with a jet black iPhone 7. Or any color of the iPhone 7 Plus.

Apple said Thursday that only “limited quantities” of the iPhone 7 in black, silver, gold and rose gold will be available at retail stores.

The Cupertino, Calif., tech giant said initial supplies of the iPhone 7 Plus in all colors and the iPhone 7 in jet black sold out during the online pre-order period and won’t be available for walk-in customers.

“We sincerely appreciate our customers’ patience as we work hard to get the new iPhone into the hands of everyone who wants one as quickly as possible,” Apple said in a statement.

To some extent, the rush isn’t new – analysts said there is always a short supply of new iPhones when they launch. But this time, demand seems even greater than usual.

Brian White, global head of technology, hardware, software and equity research at investment banking firm Drexel Hamilton, said Apple’s supply chain even ramped up ahead of time to avoid the kinds of shortages that plagued the iPhone 6 launch.

“People went into this launch expecting pre-orders to be muted,” he said. “It looks like this is a pretty strong launch for Apple.”

But Abhey Lamba, managing director and senior technology analyst at investment bank Mizuho Securities USA, said the thin inventory at stores could be a sign that Apple was expecting a quieter than usual release and reduced supply accordingly.

“All year, data points from the supply chain indicated that their initial plans were not as aggressive as historically we’ve seen,” he said. “This time around, they may have taken a cautious stance, given there was a lot of uncertainty in terms of what type of demand to expect.”

In a way, Apple – or at least its investors – may benefit from the short supply. An uptick in sales around the holidays means a better quarterly report at a time when the company needs it most.

“The last two December quarters were really strong iPhone shipment quarters, so it would help Apple’s financial results if there were more shipments in the December quarter than the September quarter,” Lamba said.