The lead-times for Apple’s iPhone X have increased on its U.S. website from 1 to 2 weeks to 2 to 3 weeks in the past few days vs. staying at 1 to 2 weeks on its Canada, China, Germany and United Kingdom sites. While this has happened before with other iPhones, it is unusual for lead-times to increase.

In today’s general tech sell-off, Apple’s shares are down 2.5% today along with the tech sector being weak. However the stock is up over 45% for the year. Apple’s shares could experience larger than normal moves if investors decide to take some profits now due to its large run. This is balanced against waiting for the year to be over to delay paying taxes until next year.

On Friday, October 27th, the first day that orders were taken for the X, its lead-time was 5 to 6 weeks. A week later on Friday, November 3, when it first started shipping, the X’s lead-time had fallen to 3 to 4 weeks. It only took 1 1/2 weeks after first selling for the X’s to drop to 2 to 3 weeks and after just under a total of 3 weeks it was at 1 to 2 weeks. However, it seems like demand has stayed strong and with it being available in 57 countries Apple does have to supply a much larger number of channels than the typical iPhone launch.

Order now for insure an iPhone X for Christmas

At least in the U.S., if you want to make sure you have an iPhone X present wrapped under the Christmas tree, it is better if you order it in the next few days since Apple’s website is showing December 13-20 delivery dates. Apple has historically shipped its iPhones earlier than what the schedule date is but just to make sure it is better to order one now vs. waiting.

Store availability isn’t very good

I’ve been tracking the 12 stores around the Palo Alto area where I live and, as of today, there were no Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon iPhone X’s available at the stores. As a comparison point, last Sunday there were no Sprint or T-Mobile ones available and on average only 4 of the 12 stores had Verizon models available so the Verizon iPhone X availability has gotten worse.

Source: Forbes