Shipping Times For iPhone 5 Improve To 2-3 Weeks Via Apple’s Online Store

Shipping times for Apple’s iPhone 5 have improved from 3-4 weeks, to 2-3 weeks as of today. Times are now one week better for all models of iPhone, including 16 through 64GB of storage and on all carriers. The iPhone 5 expected ship times had dropped to 3-4 weeks as of Tuesday, Sept. 18, a few days after pre-orders began, and remained there until today.

The improvement in ship times indicates that either A) initial demand is dropping off, or that B) Apple has managed to improve its supply chain yield in order to meet demand. Some recent reports suggest that the latter might be more likely, like the Wall Street Journal’s article from mid-October that described the reasons behind iPhone 5 shortages, and suggested progress was being made towards improving the process.

Apple’s iPhone 5 continues to be hard to find in retail stores, and Reuters reported last week that Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou said to continue expecting constrained supplies because of continued problems meeting demand, but analyst estimates last week suggested we’d see supply and demand balance improve. An jump to to 2-3 weeks, while still not ideal for those hoping to get their hands on a device quickly. should come as a welcome surprise to anyone who was hoping to have the device delivered in time to wrap it up as a holiday gift this season.