Best Buy running out of iPhone 4S, analyst says

From CNET News.com: Contacting Best Buy outlets last week to gauge demand for the iPhone 4S, analyst William Power found that the phone was sold out at most of them, with many informing customers of shortages via automatic greetings. Stores in less populated areas were more likely to have some units in stock, the analyst noted, but available iPhones tended to be the more expensive models, with higher capacities.

Power sees the Best Buy shortage as indicative of a larger picture.

"We would note that Best Buy stores have typically been one of the last outlets, behind carrier stores and Apple stores, to have its supply of iPhone devices normalize," Power wrote in an investor's note released yesterday. "This makes the retailer into a proverbial litmus test for iPhone 4S supply, with the current diagnosis being that the demand is outpacing supply."

Some Best Buy stores were also sold out of the iPhone 4, said the analyst, which could mean that the retailer was just building up its inventory on that model. But based on earlier checks at Best Buy and checks at carrier outlets and Apple stores, Power believes that "the iPhone 4S may be having a halo effect on older iPhone devices, potentially driving increased sales."

Best Buy did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.

But the Best Buy Web site showed that no models of the new phone, across all three U.S. carriers, are currently available online.

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