Apple analyst Brian White at Cantor Fitzgerald is in Asia filing daily reports.
In today's report he says he was surprised to see that in China, there were plenty of gold iPhones in stock, but the "Space Grey" model was selling out.
We don't think anyone can read anything meaningful into this anecdote but we read it, said, "huh," to ourselves, and thought it would be interesting to pass along.
Consider it one for the files:
The iPhone 5S Frequently in Stock at Retailers, and Even Champagne Gold. We also had the opportunity to visit dozens of retailers and resellers in Shenzhen that are focused on selling smartphones. Surprisingly, the iPhone 5S was frequently available and in many cases the champagne gold was in stock. In some cases, the space gray colored iPhone 5S was out of stock but the champagne gold was available, exactly the opposite of what we have discussed in the U.S. market. In our view, we believe Apple may have allocated higher stock of the champagne gold iPhone 5S in China versus the U.S. market. The iPhone 5C was widely available during our discussions with retailers and resellers. In fact, today's research indicates that for every ten new iPhones (i.e., iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C), 70-80% are the iPhone 5S and 20-30% are the iPhone 5C. During our visits, the trend toward mega-sized smartphones was very clear, and Sony stood out from the pack with the new 6.44-inch Xperia Z Ultra XL39h smartphone.
