Apple iPhone 5s Release Date Arrives: No Gold At Any Major Carriers, Apple Store In 'Grotesquely' Limited Supply

It’s a big day for Apple, but many loyal customers waiting in line for hours were peeved when they were told the new iPhone 5S would not be available in gold on launch day.

At the Verizon Wireless store located at 100 Wall St. in New York City’s Financial District, a store manager told the crowd it did not have any gold iPhone 5S units in stock, and shipments were pointing to a two- to three-week waiting period. The manager said Apple had not provided Verizon Wireless, or any other major carriers including AT&T and Sprint, with any gold iPhone 5S units in any storage capacity.

Rumors and reports prior to the iPhone 5S release date pointed to “grotesquely unavailable inventory” of gold iPhone 5S units. The gold iPhone 5S has been hyped since August, when numerous publications including AllThingsD cited the existence of the new color, which really looks more like “champagne” than gold.

It’s surprising that Apple didn’t have enough gold iPhone 5S units in supply, especially considering the company is mainly marketing the new gold color. Sure, the decision itself makes sense: With the five new iPhone 5C colors, the new gold option seemed like a decent compromise, especially since it could make the 5S feel more like a luxury item. But Apple clearly underestimated the demand for the gold color. With major carriers having little to no supply of the gold 5S -- even Apple Stores are reportedly stocking very few of the new color – Apple is being slammed with gold iPhone 5S orders and has little to show for it. Even the online Apple Store, within hours of the iPhone 5S becoming available, lists the gold color as available to ship in October. The Wall Street Journal says the company is increasing production of the gold iPhone 5S by about “one-third,” but Apple has yet to comment.

About The iPhone 5S

The iPhone 5S features the same 4-inch Retina display and chamfered diamond-cut edges, but the phone also comes with a number of new innards. The iPhone 5S also features a new A7 processor, which has a 40 times faster CPU performance and 56 times faster GPU performance over the original iPhone, and Open GL, just like the new Nexus 7. More important to note, however, the iPhone 5S comes equipped with Apple's new M7 chip, which contains all the motion-tracking hardware Apple needs to make its iWatch a reality. By packing so many components into the M7 motion co-processor, including an accelerometer, gyroscope and compass, the M7 can continuously measure motion data for the newest generation of health and fitness apps.

The iPhone 5S also features a slightly modified battery for greater life, a new camera system for slow-motion video photography, and a fingerprint sensor called Touch ID, which lets users authenticate ownership and user passwords by simply holding their thumbs on the iPhone’s signature home button.

Touch ID is 170 microns thin, senses 550 ppi, and can scan one's sub-epidermal skin layers. With 360-degree readability, you can hold your thumb in any orientation and it can still be read correctly. The entire apparatus contains a tactile switch, Touch ID sensor, a stainless-steel detection ring and a laser-cut sapphire crystal, which makes it unscratchable. Touch ID can also handle multiple fingerprints too, so you can grant access to your iPhone 5S to only certain people.

The iPhone 5S also features a new camera system, which includes a new pill-shaped dual-LED flash and a tighter aperture. The dual-LED flash will help for lower-light settings, but its new camera aperture will also help control the amount of light in each photo.

What do you think of the iPhone 5S? Are you disappointed by the low supply of the gold color? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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