Some Apple retail employees have been asked to warn customers not to visit to purchase an iPhone Duo without a pre-order on Friday, October 23. Apple Store employees told MacRumors that they have been informed that there will likely be no stock of the iPhone Duo available for walk-in purchases on launch day. Staff have been instructed to discourage customers without pre-orders from coming in expecting to buy the device, warning them that they will be disappointed. Apple’s online store tells customers to check back on Saturday, October 24 for pickup availability. Pickup reservations were briefly available when pre-orders opened before the option was disabled. The October 24 message does not guarantee that stock will be available on that day and it is not yet clear how strong the warning shared with employees is and whether it applies worldwide. If the guidance is firm and widely perpetuated, it will close off a potential route for customers hoping to avoid long device wait times in line, at least in the stores in question. Warnings about a restricted launch began long before Apple announced the iPhone Duo. In early September, Nikkei Asia reported that production had reached only a few hundred devices per day by the end of August. More production problems arose at the end of September. Earlier this month, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said Apple had at one point believed that production limitations could delay the start of sales until November. The company subsequently gathered enough inventory to proceed with the October 23 launch, although supply remained very limited. The extent of the shortage became clear when pre-orders opened earlier this week. Delivery estimates surpassed launch day in a matter of minutes, and within 30 minutes, all settings in Apple’s US online store were showing shipping estimates for January 25. The device is already sold out for Christmas through Apple’s online store. Apple later described the demand as “nothing short of extraordinary” in a statement to the Financial Times, adding that it was working to get the devices to customers as quickly as possible. Apple has not publicly specified whether any stores will have stock for walk-in purchases on launch day. The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 in the United States, with the first pre-order deliveries scheduled for October 23.
