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Don’t Lose Sleep for the iPhone 5 Pre-Order, Get It Friday Morning

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Apple confirmed that pre-orders for the Apple iPhone 5 will take place starting at Midnight Friday September 14 on the West Coast which translates to 3:00 AM for those of us in the Eastern time zone. It’s smart for those out West to stay up till Midnight and possibly one or two in the morning to get their pre-order taken.

Based on my experience last year, I won’t, however, stay up late to get mine registered at Apple.com in the middle of the night because I’m confident that Apple has a plentiful supply and people ordering Friday morning should still get one.

Realize I’m taking a risk and if you really want to be absolutely certain to get an iPhone 5 on launch day, then you should stay up. People who sold their iPhone on Gazelle or one of the other tech buy back sites should probably ignore my advice, unless you enjoy taking risks.

Read: How to Get the iPhone 5 on Release Day

But I’m not worried and don’t really think its much of a risk. Here’s why.

Last Year’s Experience

I stayed up late last year because Apple took pre-orders at the same time. I figured I’d click buy shortly after three and then get about three to four hours of sleep before getting up at about 7:00 AM. Unfortunately, the Apple servers went nuts and didn’t work well under the incredible load. It took nearly two hours before Apple.com finally took my order. Even then I wasn’t 100% certain it worked because the situation deteriorated and confirmation of the pre-order didn’t come until much later in the day. Fortunately, it went through okay for me but not everyone was as lucky.

iPhone 5

Don’t lose sleep to pre-order the iPhone 5. You’ll likely get one the next morning.

This year I’m getting some sleep and waking up early to do my pre-order and so should you. Why? Because I know plenty of people who got through late the next day without a problem and they didn’t have to sit there hitting refresh for two hours in the very early morning hours to make it work. One friend wasn’t going to buy the iPhone 4S and only chose to do so after talking to me and hearing me talk about the cool new feature coming – Siri! He went to Apple.com and got his pre-order taken in the middle of the afternoon in about ten minutes.

Apple Handles Demand Better The It Used To

tim cookApple’s new CEO Tim Cook made a name for himself by organizing the manufacturing process of Apple’s products. He’s taken that expertise to the top spot and Apple seems well supplied for the huge surge of orders that come during the first day of pre-orders dating back to the iPhone 4.

Also, the days of waiting overnight outside an Apple store in order to get the new iPhone ended a generation ago. People still do it, but they don’t really need to anymore because most people who line up on the morning of the official release date get an iPhone or an iPad during the last few release cycles.

Unless you really do have to get an iPhone on launch day for some reason, what’s the worst thing that might happen? Apple might force me to wait a week or two as I wait for Apple to replenish their supply.

I’m pretty confident that I’m going to get my iPhone 5 on launch day by pre-ordering at about 7 or 8 AM Friday morning.

14 Comments

14 Comments

  1. Dustin

    09/14/2012 at 1:34 am

    You were wrong.

    • Brian

      09/20/2012 at 9:07 pm

      No actually all you idiots are wrong because I ordered at 10 am est on the 14th and already have my iPhone 5(9/20)! Dude called it! You could of ordered through your carrier much later instead of whining about not getting one from apple! Haha idiots

  2. Elizabeth

    09/14/2012 at 2:25 am

    I ordered at five in the morning and have to wait over two and a half weeks to get mine so those who ordered at three am are the only ones getting it on launch day

  3. mikwehttam

    09/14/2012 at 2:29 am

    According to Apple’s site they sold out of the first batch in under an hour. Bad advice…

  4. Ryan

    09/14/2012 at 2:40 am

    Good advice, jack wagon!

  5. TFloyd

    09/14/2012 at 4:28 am

    I had a C64 and loved my Palm Treo 600 and I knew to order at 3am and I don’t have a column…maybe I should start writing one!

  6. John

    09/14/2012 at 5:44 am

    You were dead wrong! They sold out of initial stock within an hour. Glad I got mine and didn’t listen to this. My transaction and order went by quick and smoothly.

  7. john johnson

    09/14/2012 at 7:53 am

    lol. good try dingus.

  8. Kathia Ocasio

    09/14/2012 at 9:02 am

    I set my alarm, woke up, went in to my Apple Store app on my iPhone 4, ordered 2 iPhone 5’s by 2:05 CST, then went back to sleep. They’ll be arriving 9/21 and I lost no sleep. Sorry dude, but bad advice. Glad I didn’t listen. Hope you get yours next Friday.

  9. howdemapples

    09/14/2012 at 11:42 am

    What you failed to realize, and I bet MOST people failed to realize was that the iPhone 5 buyers are going to be a big bunch, bigger than the rest before them… cause you’ve got:

    1) people that own an iPhone 4, that skipped the iPhone 4S, upgrading
    2) people that owned an iPhone 3GS, that skipped the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, upgrading
    3) people that had a dumb-phone (not a smartphone), upgrading
    4) people that had an Android that want an iPhone, upgrading
    5) people that had a (now dying) Blackberry / Nokia, upgrading

    Most (silly enough) thought that Apple would count to 5 last year, but when Apple unveiled the iPhone 4S, majority decided that they would wait one more year for the true next gen iPhone.

    You’d think that Apple would’ve thought of that, and expected demand to be significantly higher this time… and would’ve been ready for it, but oh well….

  10. Chris

    09/14/2012 at 12:25 pm

    I think Apple wants to limit pre order sales enough to ensure long lines at the stores. If everyone is able to preorder there would be no reason to stand in line and no press coverage (free advertising)

  11. Mreesuh

    09/14/2012 at 2:35 pm

    I ordered mine at 1:00pmET, through AT&T and I received an email stating that it is scheduled to be delivered to me on 9/21/12. It’s only the Apple Stores that sold out of their initial batch of phones, I guess.

  12. Jon

    09/15/2012 at 2:44 am

    In all fairness to the writer (although obviously he should have just stated his experience and not given advice for others to follow) as I too last year awoke around 2 am naturally and ordered two iPhone 4s’s without a hitch. I heard later about the sites being down closer to midnight and decided timing was my good fortune. I figured I’d do same ths year, avoiding the first couple hours madness. Went to bed expecting to awake around 2 am. Lucky for me I awoke at 11:45 pm and decided I was awake, may as well give it a shot. I got right in and was able to order 2 iphone 5’s between 12:05 and 12:25 am.

  13. Paul Maddock

    09/16/2012 at 11:18 am

    I would suggest that the writer do a little more objective research on the potential demand for the phone. I did get up at the awful hour and due to the way Apple.com scrambles a multi phone order up with Verizon it took an hour and by then it was already into the 2 week delivery window. I’m so glad I didn’t heed this ‘advice’.

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