Apple’s much anticipated iPhone X pre-orders arrived Friday morning, with the browser-based Apple Store coming back onlineat approximately 12:13 AM PDT. Apple’s iPhone app was working as early as 12:03 AM, while the iPad app was hit or miss. Mine didn’t come online until after the website, but some folks on Twitter reported success at 12:03 AM.
Some customers reported being able to order earlier than that. By 12:16 AM, delivery times for iPhone X jumped to a 2-3 week window. TMO staff got a mix of delivery estimates of November 3 and the 2-3 week window. As of this writing, Sprint delivery estimates were still for November 3rd, but we expect this to evolve rapidly.
Xfinity Mobile is still showing delivery times of November 3rd as of this writing, but you have to order through the Xfinity site to get that.
[Update: As of 12:40 AM, delivery times for many models, especially Space Gray, have jumped to 4-5 weeks. – Bryan]
AT&T appears to have had some issues, as Apple reserved my phone because the company couldn’t get through to Ma Bell. We’ve had other reports of Verizon’s website working fine. We’d love to hear from T-Mobile, Sprint, and other carrier customers in the comments.
Bryan:
I know that you were actively soliciting T-Mobile and Sprint reports, but let me tell you about my AT&T experience. Stop me if you’ve heard this before.
I had to be up for a conference call at 0200 anyway (don’t ask). I used multiple media, including both the AT&T and Apple Store apps on my iPhone, as well as both websites on my laptop (my iPad was engaged with the Skype call and note taking). When I tried to log in on each portal, all four put me into a waiting queue at 00:01 PST. The Apple Store website reported 15 min, the iPhone app gave no waiting time other than they couldn’t wait to serve me, the AT&T website reported an approximate 14 min wait time and the app 13 then 12 minutes. None of this boded well for an 03 November delivery date.
I got into the Apple Store website after about 5 min, and was able to order my iPhone of choice (FWIW: that I had already saved a configuration made no difference; I had to re-walk the steps). I chose the Space Grey 256 GB config. It reported a 2-3 week ship date – and that was 6-7 min past opening. It also said that I would be sent an email to confirm the order and that if I did not respond the order would be cancelled.
Patience Pays – Maybe
Both AT&T sites experienced an Einsteinian time dilation as their reported 9 min stretched into more than 30 min, but I thought to just see if the ship dates were any sooner. The app responded 2 min before the website. I walked through the purchase again (my perchase had not been disqualified by the Apple Store order), and was pleasantly surprised to see an estimated delivery date of 03 November. I had suspected that this might be the case, as the Apple Store would be serving a larger client base. I re-checked my order later this morning, and it still reports 03 November, so I will drop the Apple Store order.
Bottom line: The Apple Store website was first to respond, but gave a delayed delivery date. The AT&T app responded before their website, but gave the original early delivery date, 2-3 weeks ahead of Apple.
My coworker, who ordered via Verizon, has a order that was placed at 1:58am (CST). 3 minutes before Apple was to (actually) open it’s store.
I received the following message and email after ordering my iPhone X from Apple. My carrier is AT&T.
Your iPhone has been reserved and your reservation number is: XXXXXXXXXX
“We will email when we’re able to reach the carrier systems. The email will include instructions to complete your order as well as the return link. You will have 24 hours from the time the email is sent to return to the Apple Online store to proceed with your order. If you do not complete your purchase within 24 hours, your reservation will be canceled.”
Apple’s website listed my ship date as Nov 3rd, but the email does not list a ship date.
I will follow up when I receive the next email.
Received an email from Apple that I can complete my order. Arrival date Nov 3rd.
This didn’t seem any worse than other iPhone pre-orders to me. Right now, over 3 hours later, it still says 5 to 6 weeks. I was expecting from all the news about shortages to have it be into January at this point.
I am located in Germany.
I ordered at 12:03 (your time) through the website because of Dave Hamilton’s tweet: “Wouldn’t it be funny if they turned the website back on, first?” Well, apparently they did exactly that in Germany, because the store was not online in the app over here back then. “Think different”, i guess…
So, I was able to order an iPhone X 256 GB silver with an estimated delivery on November 3rd. 🙂
Upgrade program ATT 256 space gray. 12:04 AM
Prompted me right away to complete order. Took less than five seconds 😎⚡️lightning fast 🤗
November 1st 🙂
Buying another one for a client
iPad store took 25 min to come up.
Had to use laptop ships 2 to 3 weeks
12:28 AM completed that order cause I had to get
Last 4 of Social Security number and pin number from them and laptop was slow getting into the store too and for some reason my laptop rebooted by itself. Doh!!!
iPhone app worked the best.