[Update: iPhone 8 Plus is slipping to late September/early October for 256GB and 3-4 weeks for 64GB. Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE is slipping to 3-4 weeks, and both Apple TV 4K options are now past launch day.]
Twitter users are noting that shipping times for the iPhone 8, which started slipping within a few minutes of pre-orders opening, are now shown as 1-2 weeks for most models. Apple Watch Series 3 models are typically showing 2-3 weeks at the time of writing.
If you want to get yours earlier, there are a few things you can try …
One simple thing to try is to hit the ‘Check availability’ link for personal pickup from an Apple store. That will sometimes show better availability than delivering direct to you, and could be a good way to go if you live close enough to a store to make it a convenient option.
If you are open to a different color or carrier, then you can try changing your selection to see if that gets you better availability. You can also check out any shipping time difference shown between the 64GB and 256GB models, though it’s less likely you’d be willing to switch your preferred size just to get hold of it a week or two earlier.
The third option, if you don’t mind queuing and taking a gamble, is to try to buy one direct from a retail store on September 22 – visiting either an Apple store or a carrier one. Stock will be limited either way, so you can count on having to queue for quite some time, and of course there’s no guarantee that there will still be stock available by the time you reach the head of the queue.
You also need to decide where to try. Apple’s own retail stores are likely to have more stock, while carrier stores may have shorter queues.
You can see more options in our pre-order hub, but the above are the ones that give you the best shot of getting your device on the day.
