How Preorders For Apple's iPhone 13 Models Are Tracking

Apple, Inc. AAPL unveiled the next iteration of the iPhone — iPhone 13 — at its "California Streaming" event last week.

The company began accepting preorders for the four variants of its newest iPhone model Friday morning and shipments will begin Sept. 24. On the same day, the company will begin selling the new iPhone models through its stores.

iPhones Sell Like Hot Cakes: Some of the iPhone models saw delivery dates extending to early October hours after preordering began, according to BGR. The pricier iPhone Pro and iPhone Pro Max were among the first models to sell out, the report said.

Delivery date estimates for the 1-TB iPhone 13 Pro models are currently at Oct. 19-26.

The cheaper iPhone 13 and iPhone mini variants have also been sold out and deliveries are delayed until early to mid-October, the report said.

Pink Is The New Black: The pink version of the iPhone 13 series is the most sought after, Gizchina reported, citing reports that reviewed information from the official Tmall platform.

Apple has a flagship store on the Alibaba BABA-owned B2C e-commerce platform Tmall.

The pink model sold out in less than 3 minutes, the report said.

As of Sept. 16, more than 3 million people had placed orders for the iPhone 13 series on Tmall, the report said.

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Preorders Track Better Than In 2020: As of Sept. 20, ship dates for the iPhone 13 mini, Pro and Pro Max models are slightly extended compared to last year at this point in the pre-order cycle, BofA Securities analyst Wamsi Mohan said.

The availability at U.S. Apple stores seems good, where many models are available for pickup on the first available date of Sept. 24, the analyst said. Delivery dates, however, seem faster from carrier websites, he added.

The extended lead time for models with the 1-TB storage could be due to lower supply, the analyst said.

In China, ship dates for the iPhone 13 Pro/Pro Max are slightly more extended than they were last year, likely due to lower pricing, BofA said.

The weighted average lead time for the iPhone 13 is running similar to the iPhone 12 last year, but the remaining iPhone 13 models are trending with slightly longer lead times vs. their iPhone 12 counterparts, Mohan said.

In China, Apple has priced iPhone 13 models about 300-800 yuan ($46-$124) cheaper than the corresponding launch price of iPhone 12 models with the same storage capacity, Mohan said, citing Chinese media reports.

Apple likely expects unit growth in China to offset the ASP pressure and the forex impact stemming from the strengthening of the yuan, the analyst said.

BofA continues to model 210 million iPhone units for fiscal year 2022, down 13% year-over-year. The firm said shipment dates could also be impacted by component shortages.

BofA has a Neutral rating and $160 price target for Apple shares.

AAPL Price Action: Apple shares were down 2.99% at $41.69 Monday afternoon.