Shawn Zade, who runs a small company called Wireless Imports in New York, is among hundreds of businesspeople who have tried to invent a buck from purchasing and reselling Apple’s iPhone at a higher price. But his job has gotten so hard lately that he may exit the iPhone resale business altogether.

The departure would be a casualty of what analysts and salespeople say is a widespread shortage of iPhones. “We’d be calling every store, they’d be sold out, sold out, sold out,” Zade says. In the past two weeks, some Apple stores in New York got no iPhone shipments for several days in a row, he says. And when shipments do reach, the phones are snapped up within minutes, he and others say.

Shrinking stock

The scarcity isn’t confined to New York City. On Apr. 3, an Apple store in Miami, Fla., was sold out by early afternoon. Apple outlets in San Francisco and

the Shadyside area of Pittsburgh only had the 8-gigabyte units, and sales reps were advising customers to inquire at stores run by Apple partner AT&T for the 16-gigabyte model. In the quarter that ended Mar. 31, the average Apple store was out of stock for half a week or less, according to Sanford C. Bernstein. During the period, Apple lost 20,000 units of potential sales, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates. As towering as the current drought persists, Apple could miss out on sales of 20,000 to 40,000 units a week, he speculates.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling says the company is “working to replenish iPhone supplies as quickly as we can.” He adds that stores “continue to receive shipments nearly every day.” The company is mum on the reasons, and analysts have a wide range of theories. One is that iPhone makers may be suffering a component shortage, but cell-phone…

Original post by Top Tech News

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