Preorders In for iPhone X, but There's Already Controversy

The iPhone X will officially ship on Nov. 3, but those vying for Apple's latest smartphone were able to try to preorder on Friday—and the first available batches sold out in mere minutes. CNET reports only a few models were left after just 10 minutes of opening the preorder lines at 12:01am Pacific time, with shipping delays of up to three weeks already noted on certain carriers. By the time half an hour had gone by, consumers were hit with a month or more delay on "all models from all US carriers"; the wait time in the UK and Australia was even longer. Which would seem to indicate that everyone and their tech-savvy mother is clamoring for the new iPhone. Apple even issued a statement Friday that, based on the preorder sellouts, "customer demand is off the charts," per 9to5mac.com.

But Fortune says that may not be completely accurate. Notably, a KGI expert said to be "the best Apple analyst on the planet" tells AppleInsider.com there may have been at most 3 million units in the iPhone X's first run, which is way below the 10 million iPhone 6 models that were initially available. Blame for the supply slowdown is being assigned to production issues, specifically in regard to a key facial-recognition feature that's rumored to not be going as planned. A Bloomberg report this week claimed that Apple was even advising suppliers to let the accuracy of this technology slide a bit to speed up production, which Apple said in a statement was "completely false." In a Tuesday interview with BuzzFeed News, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, in response to word of a "constrained" supply, that "we'll be working as hard as possible to make as many as possible." (More iPhone X stories.)