It looks like the new iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 are very popular, or Apple simply didn't show up to take orders at the promised time, which was a few minutes ago when this story was first posted!
UPDATE: Three hours later it seems iPhone 15 Pros have sold out and ship dates are now back as far as November, suggesting constrained supply, while others tell of waiting over 30 minutes to make their purchase.
• Check my iPhone 15 Trojan Horse for Photography theory
For a couple of days after the iPhone 15 announcement as the Wonderlust presentation, Apple's store site offered the opportunity to skip the pre-order mess. I didn't do it because I couldn't decide between the blue and the natural titanium.
I thought I could save that choice until the morning since here, in the UK, the actual electronic 'doors opening' time was 1.00 p.m. Boy was I wrong. Just after breakfast, when I'd finally settled on the natural titanium, the facility to game the pre-order system had already gone, replaced with an animated colored rim of an Apple logo and a note explaining that Apple's company's excitement was on a par with mine, the potential customer.
At the appointed hour though – thirty minutes ago as I type– when the phone was meant to be available for pre-order, the animation stood still and the words "Almost there" appeared. "Are Apple late for work?" I started to ask myself.
"Or, alternatively, are all those organised folk getting their orders processed first while the Apple Store simply doesn't play ball?" I worried.
Well, I'm sure it was a bit of the other, and by the time I got through and chose the natural titanium iPhone 15 Pro Max it wasn't available until 28th September rather than the 22nd (it feels like a long time to me, OK?). But the blue one was... Really? I thought that'd be more popular.
Still, I persevered and chose store pick up and by the end of the process – which took me about ten minutes as I was still wavering over storage size and how much insurance, sorry, AppleCare, I wanted – an interesting thing happened.
That 28th–Oct 3rd date I was shown earlier went back to 22nd when I chose store pick up and you can even pick a 15-minute slot so there is no need for old-school geeky queuing (though, you know, I did enjoy doing that for iPhone 1).
Now I just get to wait and see whether the date will be true and (of course) find out as I pick my pre-chosen from photos phone up whether I got the color right!
Now I guess it's time to pick a case with our best iPhone 15 Pro Max case guide.
