Want to buy the new iPhone 6 this month? You’re in luck. But that’s about all that will be shipping out from China, as Apple may have booked every cargo flight from China to the U.S. on three major freight carriers for two weeks, to deliver enough iPhone 6 units to fulfill demand for the phone’s launch on Sept. 19.
Though it’s been reported that Apple will only have a limited supply of the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus (10 million for the month of September), the company is said to be shipping up to 80 million combined units this year.
PCMag spoke to several smaller manufacturers and analysts at the CTIA Wireless Super Mobility Week trade show, who all told the same story.
This won’t affect big names like Samsung and LG, but the smaller manufacturers are frustrated about not being able to get their products into the U.S. during the iPhone shipping crush, simply because they don’t have the same preferential rates and reserved air cargo space.
Shipping is no small concern for electronics. The iPhone, for example, must be stored in temperatures between -4 degrees and 113 degrees F, (-20 to 45 degrees C). That may seem like quite a broad range, but shipping containers can easily reach extreme temperatures while traveling between point A and point B.
Climate controlled containers are an excellent choice for shipping cargo which absolutely requires protection against temperature extremes. They keep the electronics at the proper temperature, so they are ready and operational for the hungry consumers that await them.
Apple has played this game before. In 1997, Steve Jobs bought up all the holiday freight space for the new iMacs. In 2012, Apply took up enough capacity on DHL for shipping the third-generation iPad that DHL bumped up everyone else’s rate by 20%.
Because of all the hubbub, several smaller manufacturers, including American Network Solutions, Unnecto, and Blu, all said they have new phones launching in October, rather than September.