Apple late Wednesday confirmed it had sold out of its initial inventory of the new models of the device that are most different from last year's iPhone 6S. The bigger 7 Plus has two cameras and Apple's updated iPhones haven't had a true black version before.
Any inventory sent to stores has already been reserved, which means anyone who hopes, like years past, to walk into an Apple store to buy an iPhone would be out of luck.
The trouble is, word hadn't yet made it to some people waiting in line to buy those models of the device. Apple store employees plan to notify people waiting in line, but they hadn't yet made the rounds shortly before 9 a.m. PT on Thursday at the store in San Francisco's Union Square.
Roman Domagalaki, a 22-year-old who moved to San Francisco from Texas a month ago, got in line at about 5:30 a.m. PT Thursday with his girlfriend, who had stepped away at the time CNET stopped by the line. His girlfriend had preordered the iPhone 7 Plus but wouldn't get it until October. They decided to wait in line to get it sooner and hadn't heard that it wouldn't be available in the store. When CNET broke the news to Domagalaki, he was surprised.
"They're not [available]?!" he said. "Oh, that is so sad!"
Domagalaki said he was going to call his girlfriend to see if she wanted to wait for the iPhone 7 instead.
"I'm not sure what she's going to want to do now," he said. "The big thing she wanted was the dual lenses."Before word that the iPhone 7 Plus had sold out, the phone was expected to arrive in stores on Friday alongside its smaller sibling. The phones appear nearly identical to last year's models but ditch the headphone jack in favor of wireless headphones or headphones that connect through the Lightning charging port. The most noticeable new features are the dual cameras in the 7 Plus and the two new black versions, including the shiny jet black model.
Apple consistently has long lines of people at its stores to get the newest iPhone the first day it's available. This isn't the first time it's had low supplies of the hottest versions of its devices, but Apple hasn't issued such a warning about no availability before.
September 2013's iPhone 5S launch, for instance, marked the first time Apple sold a gold model of it phone. The first people in line at Apple's flagship store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue waited 15 days for the 64GB gold iPhone 5S only to find out the store had a very limited supply of that device available. The first person in line initially was told the store didn't have that model, but Apple later found one for him.
Jaime Gonzalez, first in line at New York's Fifth Avenue store after getting in line 22 days ago, said he's disappointed but planned to buy the iPhone 7 instead and order the 7 Plus later. Next to him in line was Luis Lorenzo, who had been in line 13 days. Lorenzo said he thinks Apple will surprise him at the store and have a secret stock of 7 Plus units.
"I was here last year and they said the same thing for the Rose Gold, and I got one," Lorenzo said. He won't be buying a regular iPhone 7 if he turns out to be wrong.
Andreas Francis and his girlfriend, Kat Miller, both 18 and from Queens, want to sell their coveted Nos. 3 and 4 spots in line for $700 to $1,000 since the iPhone 7 Plus is sold out. They've been in line for eight days.
"I thought I could get the Plus with this seat, but since I can't, I might as well sell it," Francis said, who already has a pre-order for the iPhone 7.
Miller suggested advertising their spots on Craigslist.
They won't be leaving empty-handed, though, as the first 10 people in line at the New York flagship store got a free $100 gift card from Apple.
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