iPhone pre-orders might be tighter than normal this year

Ming-Chi Kuo: A recent media report claims that tight DRAM suppl...

My industry checks suggest that Apple has indeed scaled back its hardware shipment plans this year due to memory shortages.

Ten years ago, if you wanted to buy the new iPhone and get it on release day, you had to have Apple.com open in three different browsers. You needed to have the Apple Store app open on your phone, and you needed to be frantically refreshing these every couple seconds at the stroke of midnight Pacific time to have any hope of ordering one quick enough. Mercifully, in recent years, Apple has improved their availability significantly, to the point that even though new phones sell significantly more than they did ten years ago, they are readily available on launch day, even if it takes you a few minutes, hours, or in some cases, even days to get your order in.

Well, strap in because I am a bit worried that 2026 iPhone pre-orders will feel a lot more like 2016 iPhone pre-orders.