Apple iPhone 5S Shortages in Japan affecting NTT DoCoMo - Sales going to their competitors SoftBank and KDDI as Global Apple iPhone Shortages ensue

Demand was RED hot since launch on Friday September 20^th 2013! The Apple iPhone 5S went on to shatter all record for smartphone sales both made by Apple and any other phone maker, selling nearly nine (9) million units over the weekend dates of Saturday September 21st 2013 to Sunday September 22^nd 2013 as stated in my blog article entitled “Apple iPhone 5S and Apple iPhone 5C sold 9 million units over the Weekend - Apple beats Wall Street's Great Expectations for Christmas 2013”.

So hot that now there are severe shortages of both the Apple iPhone 5S and the Apple iPhone 5C, especially the Gold version of the Apple iPhone 5S in Japan as stated in the article “iPhone 5S' poor availability hurting Japan's biggest carrier”, published October 7, 2013 6:45 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, CNET News.

The shortages are now even beginning to affect NTT DoCoMo in Japan, who are already reeling customer jumping ship to competitors SoftBank and KDDI, who had joined the Apple iPhone bandwagon as easily as 2008 as explained in my blog article entitled “NTT DoCoMo to carry the Apple iPhone 5S and 5C in 2013 - Japan and China will both get their bite of the Apple on Friday September 20th 2013”.

Looks like analyst Localytics was on to something when they noticed the preference for the Gold coloured Apple iPhone 5S versus the polycarbonate Apple iPhone 5C as noted in my blog article entitled “Localytics Stats suggest preference for Silver and Gold Apple iPhone 5S over polycarbonate Apple iPhone 5C - Plastic vs Metallic battle of Telecom Customer Preferences”.

Now with the severe shortages of the Apple iPhone 5S, customer who pre-ordered in Japan from NTT DoCoMo are turning to other sources, even to the other competitors for the much coveted stocking stuffer. Thus, they’ve lost some 66,800 in September 2013 alone even as competitors SoftBank and KDDI gained a net total of 270,700 and 232,700 during that same month.

NTT DoCoMo will continue to lose customers as the shortages drag on and options remain available with their competitors according to Japanese newspaper Nikkei – for those for you who don’t believe me and apparently can read Japanese!

In a way this is an indication of how hot the concept of a Gold Coloured Apple iPhone as well as including a cheaper poly-carbonate Apple iPhone 5C it turning out. But it may be a case of “too hot to handle”, as Apple’ suppliers need to ramp up production as demand is sure to peak during Christmas, which is a mere 2 months away!