Apple ups iPhone purchase limit to five

After putting a two-unit limit on purchases of the iPhone back in October, the company has quietly raised the limit back to five.

If you've got a family of three, you can now get everyone an iPhone in one transaction.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

iPhone Atlas spotted the move on Friday, and Wired also confirmed on Monday that Apple is still not taking cash for the iPhone. At the time the limit was announced, Apple said it wanted to ensure there would be enough supply in hand for the holiday shopping season, which is well under way.

So, either they've ramped up production, which would make sense following the European launches, or demand has waned. I don't see anything that indicates that interest in the iPhone has fallen off, especially at the $399 price, but we'll know for sure in January following either Macworld or Apple's earning announcement.

Apple is apparently still worried about the resale market, however, since it's sticking with its policy of only accepting credit cards for iPhone purchases. That was the reason given for the decision to stop accepting cash: that the company wanted to discourage unlocking and unauthorized resales of the iPhone. It will be interesting to see how long Apple sticks with that policy as more and more iPhones enter the world.

[sevenalive]

who cares

Is this really news, and i am not just saying that because its apple, this is pointless. The Meizu miniOne knockoff is a better phone than the iphone.

[BlackMicro]

I Care!

Looks a great phone with one major problem... I still have to use
MS crappy Explorer and email.

[jimmyhoops]

Big whoppin' deal!!!

Who cares if you can buy 2, 4, 6, 8 or 100? Just proves that
Apple thinks wayyyyyyy too much of them selves. It's a cool
product but why should I care how many I'm limited to
purchasing when they have yet to sway me to buy ONE!

Besides, sounds like a ploy to dump stock that will be
superceded by some "one more thing" announcement by Jobs.
When they can stuff a 30 Gig HD in there and give me realtime
weather/GPS overlays, then maybe they'll get my attention.

[kool_skatkat]

Business sense

If a product is hot, you buy all the stock, then resell it at a premium and make more money than the company that come out with the product.

The festive season is coming, if you have any business sense, you better put in place measures to prevent the above situation from occurring. Why do you think Apple is in business?

Sounds like you'll never be satisfied. Live your life in the future if you want.

[kxmmxk]

probably plenty

Let's see...

Enough people were trying to buy more than 2 that it was necessary to create the limit to begin with.

Given that, those people probably want to know that they can now get more.

Pretty simple really.

Try not to be such a hater.

[jimmyhoops]

Not being a hater....

It's just non-news! I'd rather be reading about Ms. Smith's cat in a
tree before a non-news story like upping Apple's purchasing limit.
Just because it's a story and has "Apple" in it, does not mean a
story is news worthy.

[close5828]

Let's see...do I care?

Wait.....No, still don't.

I think Apple is probably one of the most "full of themselves" companies today.

[AllNamesAreTaken]

its the products

if i had such a product line i would be full of myself too

[vasu_k]

Limit doesn't matter

There are already 1000's of iphone in Bangalore alone and sell for $500-550 and probably by next year it will be 10 times the current number

[Lee in San Diego]

Question

I am not being a smart ass Vasu, but there is probably 6,000,000
plus people in Bangalore. Not to mention the population of the
environs that are not city proper. So what percentage of the
population area could get their hands on an iPhone?

[DVS_WiNdz]

Apple is stupid

It was stupid for Apple to limit the iPhone to 2 per person in the first place. They keep advertising how it is the best holiday gift, how are you suppose to get it for someone if you can only buy two?? one for you of course and one for someone else? it's like apple WANTS us to go on ebay and buy it from the people selling them for a higher price. That's the most idiotic move ever.

[Lee in San Diego]

How many do you want?

From the link in the story; "Users were asked to sign a ?no resell?
form in order to purchase more than two iPhones."

[Vegaman_Dan]

Blowout / closeout sale

I would not be surprised if this move is a way to hopefully clear out inventory that will be a serious liability when Apple releases the 3G iPhone they already leaked was going to be out shortly (thanks Orange!).

What will people who lined up for an Edge iPhone do when the 3G is out? What sort of backlash to customer loyalty will that cause? Jobs said that they had no intent of developing a 3G phone just this last summer. People believed that. So if they release a 3G version in direct contradiction to what Jobs had stated, what does that do to their credibility or customer loyalty? How many times can you slap your customers in the face before they start to say 'Ow'?

I'm not sure, but it should be an interesting time ahead.

[Lee in San Diego]

Can they do it with the current iPhone?

Not being a hardware guy I need to ask the question can 3G be
added to the current iPhone via a software/firmware update?

See this story regarding G3 v Edge speeds and the iPhone http://www.ipodobserver.com/story/34035

[J.G.]

Typical Vega FUD

Steve Jobs never said there would not be a 3G iPhone. He said that Apple would wait until battery life could be improved. Furthermore, a 3G iPhone is expected at the end of 2008, not any time soon. By then, early adopters will have had their iPhone originals for a year and a half.

A year and a half later, AT&T still holds the limit of 2 iphones per household, and Walmart and BestBuy won't even let you complete your transaction online. Besides, you also have to sign an exclusive - and lengthy - service contract with AT&T for $30/month.

Sorry to say this, but this is a sad and very well known way already to dominate a market-territory through fear and scarcity. Even sadder when it comes from an innovative brand such as Apple. Here's a link to a nupdated and very detailed post on current limitations and how to overcome them: http://www.squidoo.com/Where-Can-I-Purchase-an-iPhone