Daniel Finkelstein writes about the deliberately engineered shortages of the new iPhone:

First of all, they claim the demand for the device is unprecedented. This is either unremarkable - since it is a new device any demand for it at all would be without precedent - or untrue - if they are arguing that no device in the history of devices has ever experienced such demand then I refuse to believe it.

Second, it is hard to understand why the demand would have taken them by surprise. All iPhone users on the higher tarriffs are being offered the phone free of charge, while being allowed to keep their existing devices.

Wasn't it entirely predictable that all of them would apply immediately for the new phone?

And Apple have been stoking demand, emailing and texting existing users to encourage them to get the device as soon as it was available. Yet if manufacturing difficulties are responsible they would have known for months that they were encouraging customers to apply for a product that would not be available.

Thing is, they can't even organise a shortage properly. I spent a good time on Monday trying to order the new iPhone online, having pre-registered as an existing user. The site repeatedly crashed, most annoyingly after I'd finally logged on and gone right through to the last button. I pressed submit and it crashed. Grrr.

I rang O2 to see if the order had gone through, and was told there was no trace (as I expected). Then they announced they were closing down the site as they'd run out.

So I didn't expect yesterday to be contacted by DHL and asked where I would be today to take delivery of the phone! I went back to look at my account and, weirdly, my order had suddenly appeared, as if it had always been there. And fingers crossed my phone is now on its way to me...