Ahead of the iPhone 5s launch tomorrow morning in Apple Stores around the world at 8AM local time, Apple appears to be preparing for online orders with its websites for China, Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore currently experiencing downtime. Orders from Apple’s online store are about to kick off in the coming hours in Australia, while China and Hong Kong opened up reservations for the device earlier this week and also plan 8am retail launches. In the U.S. and most other countries online orders will start at 12am (PST in the US) and local time in other locations. Word has it the iPhone 5s will be in short supply at launch, but it’s taken Apple’s iPhone 5c over a week before experiencing any significant shipping delays.
Shipping times for certain models of the iPhone 5c began slipping over the last week, but most models in the initial launch countries remained available for delivery by the expected September 20 launch date. Today that has started to change with many more models of the iPhone 5c experiencing delays in several countries.
In the U.S. and Canada, all models of the device are currently listed as shipping in 1-3 business days, while France and Germany are now listing “5 working days” for most models and “7-10 working days” for others. Of course, shipping times could easily change again tomorrow when the iPhone 5c officially hits Apple retail stores alongside the 5s. We’ll keep you updated if they do.
