iPhone Shortage and Business Worries

When you look at the iPhone, what do you see? Do you see an iPod/phone combination aimed at home users and casual show-offs, or do you see it as more of a business phone?

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, once criticized Apple and its upcoming iPhone for not being “business-savvy,” due mainly to the fact that third-party applications could not be installed and there is a serious lack of office software installed (Word, Excel, etc.). On the one hand you could bash Ballmer for openly flaming the iPhone even though he knew no more about it than we do, but on the other hand, the fella has got it right on the money.

According to AppleInsider, one of their users got in touch and informed them that they had spoken to a business representative from the headquarters of AT&T and found out that the iPhone will not be available to business customers, at least not any time soon.

Unfortunately the iPhone will only be available to those who hold an account with individual responsibility. So for those of you hoping to get a freebie from work this summer, you might need to re-think your plans.

This news, however, isn’t nearly as bad as the possibility of the iPhone running short on supply come its release later next month. There have already been some rumours that AT&T and Apple stores will carry a limited supply of the phone in each storage nationwide on launch day, but now it seems that there could be a slow supply of iPhones to customers for two months after it has debuted in America.

Dr. Simon Croom, of the Supply Chain Management Institute, has held discussions with Zdnet over the strong possibility of the iPhone shortages.

At present it’s not yet known which companies are supplying Apple with the parts for the iPhone, but it is known that they are based in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, and because of “global differences,” the parts may come in slower than Apple had anticipated. Because of this, high demand for the iPhone may well be met with a slow but at least steady supply to customers over the next couple of months, and you may just find that a “Sold out” sign will be listed up next to the iPhone displays for a few days here and there.

But it’s not going to be as simple as that; what about replacements? Apple has a new product on the scene, and like any company with a brand new product, there are going to be problems along the way. Whether it’s a faulty battery, unreliable touch-screen display, or simply refusing to make phone calls, the iPhone is going to have its share of problems. AT&T and Apple are going to be the ones to have to deal with this and the easiest solution by far is to just issue the customer with a new iPhone, rather than getting it sent off for repair. What will this do for supply? You guessed it: slow it down even further.

It’d be interesting to see if any Apple Matters readers are planning to make a super-early trip down to their local Apple or AT&T store in order to grab an iPhone, or risk waiting a couple of months before getting one.