CUPERTINO, Calif. – Apple sent roughly 80% of its initial iPhone Duo inventory to its own stores rather than to online buyers, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The reported split helps explain why online orders ran into long waits while some shoppers who walked into stores on launch day could still buy a phone.
Gurman, speaking on a recent podcast episode, said some stores were holding as few as 50 units each. Apple does not publish allocation numbers, and the company has not confirmed the split.
AppleInsider reached a similar conclusion in its own account, saying Apple strategically allocated its limited stock and directed the majority to physical retail locations rather than online pre-orders.
Apple said in its launch-day statement that the phone debuted at Apple Store locations worldwide on Friday, October 23. Pre-orders had opened a week earlier, on October 16, and the Eastern Herald reported at the time that buyers faced 2027 delivery waits after the pre-order rush.
The Eastern Herald had also warned before launch that iPhone Duo launch stock could be tight. The Gurman figures give a likely reason for the mismatch between the two experiences: most phones went where the queues were.
The allocation was a choice, not only a shortage. Putting most stock in stores favours people who can turn up in person over customers who pre-ordered on the first day, and Apple has not publicly explained how it divided supply between the two groups.
Several things remain unknown. Gurman’s figures come from unnamed sources and have not been independently verified, Apple has not provided unit numbers, and it is unclear whether later shipments will be divided between stores and online orders in the same way.
