Apple Store goes down as iPhone 6 pre-orders start

Advance orders began online at 12 a.m. PT on Friday, but the online Apple Store still wasn’t back up two hours later. And some other preorder sites had hiccups, including Sprint and T-Mobile.

Apple’s new iPhone 6 devices are now available for preorder — that is, if you can find a site that’s working.

The Cupertino, Calif., company started accepting advance orders for its two new phones — the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus — at midnight PT on Friday. But many sites didn’t open for preorders at the planned time, including the Apple Store.

The Apple Store remained down in many regions as of 2 a.m. PT, but savvy customers could purchase an iPhone through Apple’s iOS store app. However, availability was severely limited in the app shortly after presales started.

Preorders through Verizon Wireless and AT&T largely started without a hitch at midnight, though some customers on Twitter have since complained about issues. Those problems were nothing compared to the issues experienced by Sprint and T-Mobile customers. The Sprint and T-Mobile sites were still down for many users nearly two hours after presales were slated to start. Access to Sprint’s site faded in and out, while the T-Mobile site continued to display a form to register for a reminder for when the preorders began.

The rocky start to iPhone 6 sales is problem for Sprint and T-Mobile, the nation’s third and fourth biggest carriers, which have been struggling to compete against their bigger rivals. Sprint’s CEO told CNET earlier this week that the iPhone 6 is key to his company’s turnaround, and T-Mobile hosted an event a day after the iPhone launch to tout its offerings related to the device.

Some people joked on Twitter that they “might as well wait for the iPhone 6S now.”

We’ve contacted the four major carriers and Apple and will update the report when we have more information.

The Apple Store issues are an embarrassment for Apple, which has boasted the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch will be its biggest ever. It’s also a black eye for Angela Ahrendts, the former Burberry CEO who joined Apple CEO Tim Cook’s team as head of online and physical store retail in May. She has been tasked with helping revitalize Apple’s retail operations, which have experienced slowing growth. Angering customers during the iPhone 6 launch isn’t quite the way to start.

The store outage on Friday also is the second large technical difficulty Apple — the biggest tech company in the country — has experienced this week. The livestream on Tuesday to unveil its newest devices worked only intermittently, and many users ended up hearing dubbed Mandarin instead of English when they had a picture at all.

The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 goes on sale Sept. 19 in 115 countries, starting at $199 with for a version with 16 gigabytes of storage space. The 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus starts at $299 for its 16-gigabyte version, $100 more. In the UK, an unlocked iPhone 6 will start at £539, and the iPhone 6 Plus will start at £619.

From now until the launch date, consumers can place preorders through Apple’s online store and at carriers such as Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular. Buyers also can make preorders at a physical Apple Retail Stores beginning at 8 a.m. local time on Friday. And several retailers also will get in on the act Friday in their physical stores, including Best Buy, RadioShack, Sam’s Club, Target, and Walmart. Best Buy also will allow customers to make preorders online for only the Sprint version of the iPhone 6.

The iPhone 6 has the potential to be the biggest launch in Apple’s 38-year history. Apple reportedly has asked manufacturing partners to produce about 70 million to 80 million units of its larger screen iPhones by Dec. 30, which is about 30 percent to 40 percent more iPhones than it ordered for its initial run of last year’s iPhone 5S and 5C.

Ordering more devices to be available could buffer Apple against the supply shortages it has seen with past launches. The company also sets aside allotments for the different days of the preorder process. The iPhone 5, released in the fall of 2012, sold out of its initial supply of preorders in less than an hour. Apple didn’t offer preorders with last year’s high-end iPhone 5S because of supply constraints, but it did put its cheaper, plastic-encased iPhone 5C up for preorder. The iPhone 5C availability was much better due to lower demand for the device.

As of 2 a.m. PT, the two biggest US carriers — Verizon and AT&T — still had all versions of the iPhone 6 available for preorder, though the iPhone 6 Plus had shipping delays of two to four weeks.
Shipping delays around the globe

At Verizon, models of the iPhone 6 Plus — Apple’s phablet, or phone-tablet hybrid — already had launch delays of as much as a month, less than 20 minutes after opening for preorders. As of 12:30 a.m. PT, the 16GB iPhone 6 in space gray and gold had a delivery date of Oct. 14, nearly a month later than the Sept. 19 launch. The 64 and 128 GB versions listed delivery dates of Oct. 7. All silver models still had delivery on Sept. 19, as did all regular iPhone 6 models.There is believed to be supply issues with the bigger phone, limiting the number initially available.

The iPhone 6 Plus also had ship dates 14 to 21 business days out at AT&T. And shipment delays also showed up on Apple’s iOS App. Only the 16GB space gray iPhone 6 and 128 GB gold iPhone 6 were still available for delivery on Sept. 19, as of 12:35 a.m. PT. The app doesn’t easily break down carrier options.