Report: Best Buy's iPhone supply running low

iPhone 3G supplies are dwindling. Does this mean a new model is on the way?

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

First-generation iPhone 3Gs are becoming a lot more scarce at retail.

Best Buy is anticipating its iPhone inventory running very low over the next few weeks, according to AppleInsider. A memo from Best Buy corporate to its sales employees says the stream of iPhone 3G inventory to its stores will slow to a trickle. Some stores may run completely out of the devices.

Reports surfaced last week of an Australian distributor that supplies iPhone 3Gs to carriers saying there was "only a few weeks stock available."

This is a similar pattern to what unfolded last year, when first-generation iPhone supplies began to run low at retail locations ahead of the launch of the iPhone 3G last July. Apple cut production perhaps a bit too early during the last go-round, resulting in very few iPhones sold during the second quarter of 2008.

This year, the reports of dwindling iPhone supplies are coming more than a month later than last year, suggesting that perhaps Apple has fine-tuned its iPhone model end-of-life process.

It also, of course, suggests what almost everyone is expecting at WWDC next week: the announcement of new iPhone hardware to go with the new iPhone OS 3.0 software.

[B-Ri]

I hope it drops soon after WWDC. I just ran out of my contract with Sprint and would already have purchased an iPhone except I was anticipating new hardware. I would like to get one with at least 32 gb capacity as my Touch is often bumping up against the limit of being full.

[thelemurking]

I'm at the point with Sprint that I could care less about my contract... going to early terminate and tell them where they can stick their phones. The only thing I will miss about Sprint is the Simply Everything Plan, but I will forget all about that with a 32gb iPhone in my pocket :)

[myles taylor]

That's got to be very hard. People get upset if they buy the old model right before the new one comes out but they want it to be available right up to the day. The consumer is a crazy animal and difficult to predict.

[Kyanar]

Actually, Telecom NZ already gave away that there's a third generation iPhone in the running at http://twitter.com/telecomnz#/TelecomNZ - "Alan: "We are in negotiations with Apple... we are very focused on the 3rd gen iPhone.. we will keep u updated" #XTLaunch". 3rd Gen? Hmm, didn't say "iPhone 3G" so they must actually mean a phone of the 3rd generation.

[sharmajunior]

Well where's Obama in this...remember when he said during his campaign...."I won't let Apple release a new iPod or Iphone (i am including this) the day after you bought the previous version"...LOL....