How to Be One of the First to Order the New iPhone

Updated Sept. 2017

Introduction

I happened upon this technique right around the same time I first began this blog. This post is one of my earliest, so I keep it for posterity’s sake despite the fact it’s a bit of a mess. But the technique itself now has a proven track record for me…it’s one I use a lot. I’ll be using it again this year for both my husband and myself…because both of our phones have a lot of problems and desperately need to be replaced. I sort of just remembered that I wrote this, so decided to share it again for the iPhone 8.

My Story About the Night I First Discovered How to Be One of the First to Order a Brand New Apple Device

I accidentally became one of the first people to order the original iPad Air. When it and the iPad mini Retina were first announced via Apple’s September livestream event…no actual dates were given for ordering it. I’d been waiting for a very long time for the retina mini because my eyesight was too poor to to read with the regular mini.

In the dead of night a few months later (it was November 2013,) truthfully it was morning already because it was around…say, maybe 2:00am. I just happened to visit Apple’s online store to check on something and discovered that it was ‘shutdown‘ for ‘Maintenance’ or ‘Restocking’…I forget which.

I was really annoyed because I really needed whatever bit of information I was searching for at the time,..so I just kept trying to access the store every few minutes.

Approximately 2 hours after I got that first message, the store came back online. I decided to check out availability of both iPads again (I’d been doing that really regularly too for weeks.)

At first I was a bit stunned, but that quickly changed to excitment as I realized that the Air had just been made available!!!! So I immediately ordered one. I truly believe that I was one of the first orders in the entire country, if not the world!!! It arrived a few weeks later, and it the was the best iPad I’d ever owned until the ios 8 update. :-) I still have it because it has some unique and fabulous characteristics making it hard to part with…but I really don’t use it much and more.

A few weeks after that first purchase, almost the exact same scenario repeated…but this time I knew what was happening. So I stayed up late again (actually very, very, early) until the website came back online and voila! there were the mini’s on sale!!!

Below is a Hodge Podge of Bantering Which Occurred During That First Revelating Experience…it’s all easily skipped!

The paragraphs below are of my recording of a live Twitter feed during the online ordering process for my new iPhone 6+ literally moments after it 1st became available. Reading this feed from the top down takes you through a reverse chronology of the events. Scroll down to the heading ‘On Sale September 12th 2014’ for my how to tips.

First Sales Numbers Reported

(Reuters) – Apple Inc said many customers will need to wait until next month for their new iPhones after a record 4 million first-day pre-orders were logged, double the number for the iPhone 5 two years ago.

The company said demand had outstripped supply of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which feature larger screens and longer battery life. Deliveries of pre-orders will begin on Friday and will continue through October

Update 4:30 am CST

2nd Success

OK…so the Apple Store site still shows closed. But I Googled preorder iPhone 6+ contract free, and one result was a link to the Apple store. Which opened when I tapped on it! So finally I was able to order the contract free version…which in the US is T-Mobile!!!

One person on Twitter said that the site opened when he used Private Browsing…but that didn’t work for me.

Update 3:35 am CST

Well, the Apple store, for me continues to be down…but someone from Canada posted on Twitter that they did order a SIM free 6…apparently it wasn’t easy…and can only be done there. No SIM free 6’s at the app store…or even new contracts for CDMA networks :-(

But the upside (which I also saw on Twitter) is

I’m learning how to say

‘We’ll Be Back’ in 199 (or is it 119?) languages!

Update 2:45 am CST

1st Success

The Apple site still is showing unavailable, but I went to the Apple Store app and ordered the 6+!!!

There is limited availability for the 6, and so far it’s only available in the 128GB model…the carriers are Sprint, Verizon and AT&T. No T-Mobile or ‘contract free’ appear to be available via the Apple Store app.

I ordered the AT&T version but I really want the ‘contract free’ or T-Mobile one, which is essentially also ‘contract free’ so I continue to search for that version using Twitter as my guiding resource.

Update 11:30 pm CST

It’s happening now…the Apple Site is shutdown…here’s the message:

The new iPhone 6 & 6+

On Sale September 12th 2014

The 2 newest iPhones are going to be available for preordering on September 12th. They’ll be available in retail stores on September 19th…which may also be the date that the presale iPhones are supposed to shipped. That’s not entirely clear.

How I Stumbled Upon My ‘Be One of the Earliest to Order’ Method

I happened upon this technique to be ‘one of the first to order’ when the iPad Air and iPad mini Retina were first announced via Apple’s September livestream event, but no actual dates were given for ordering. One night a few months later (in November 2013,) it was pretty late…say maybe 2:00am…I went to Apple’s online store to check something out and found it was shutdown for ‘Maintenance’ or ‘Restocking’…I forget which.

I was annoyed because I really needed whatever bit of information I was searching for at the time,..so I kept trying to access the store.

Approximately 2 hours after I got the first message, the store came back online. I decided to check out availability of both iPads again (I’d been doing this somewhat regularly for weeks.)

At first I was a bit stunned, but that quickly changed to excitment as I realized that the Air had just been made available!!!! So I immediately ordered one, and I truly believe that I was one of the first orders in the entire country, if not the world!!! It arrived a few weeks later, and it the was the best iPad I’d ever owned until the ios 8 update. :-)

A few weeks after that first purchase, almost the exact same scenario repeated…but this time I knew what was happening. So I stayed up late again (actually very, very, early) until the website came back online and voila! there were the mini’s on sale!!!

Shortage Rumors

Because the mini was rumored to be in very limited production at that time, I ordered 3 of them. That was the maximum one person was allowed to purchase. I was excited to know that I had just accomplished the vast majority of my Xmas shopping that night!