Apple Streamlines the iPhone Buying Process. If Only That Were It's Biggest Problem

Posted by: Peter Burrows on September 29

Analyst Charlie Wolf from Needham told me some weeks ago that Apple was working on ways to streamline the iPhone buying process—which at the time seemed to be one of Apple’s most pressing challenges as the company sought to satisfy demand for the device.

Those were the days, eh?

Just now, I received an e-mail from Apple that explains one of these streamlining moves—a nifty-sounding process that lets you buy the phone online and then pick it up an Apple store at your leisure. Trouble is, Apple—and the world—have much bigger problems right now. With fears of economic disaster and plummeting consumer spending running rampant, Apple shares fell a full 18% today.

Strangley, one of the analysts whose downgrade triggered the sell-off keeps raising his iPhone unit sales projections. RBC’s Mike Abramsky now thinks Apple sold 6 million iPhones in the quarter that ended on Sept. 27, this just days after he raised his estimate from just over four million to five million.

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