Analysts Expected To Grill Apple On iPhone 3G Shortages

Expect Apple's investors and financial analysts to hit the company pretty hard this afternoon when it releases results and holds its earnings call for its third quarter, which ended in June. Although much of the company's earnings are still generated from Mac and iPod sales (as much as 75 percent overall), there will likely be a lot of attention placed on this month's release of the new iPhone 3G. The launch was too recent for early sales of the device to be reflected in the Q3 results, but the company has forced a lot of attention on the iPhone. After activation snafus and long lines that moved at sluggish paces plagued Apple ( NSDQ: AAPL) and AT&T ( NYSE: T) throughout the first weekend of sales, Apple announced more than 1 million devices were sold in those first three days despite all the problems.

But not much has been said since then ? and with good reason. There are hardly any iPhone 3G units available for purchase at the moment. Most AT&T stores ran out of stock in the first weekend, with a faint trickle of new ones coming in at random. Meanwhile, Apple stores were stocked to the hilt for the first week or so ? customers just had to commit an entire day to wait in line on most occasions. A quick check using Apple's inventory tool showed that only 16, or 9 percent, of Apple's U.S. retail stores had the device in stock on Sunday, InfoWorld reported. By this morning, MacNN reported Apple was completely sold out of the device in all but three stores nationwide. And before last week was over, AppleInsider scooped up some AT&T business memos that warned consultants most orders wouldn't be fulfilled for 10 to 14 days.

Even with Apple having an early spurt in sales after the launch, the company's bound to see some slowdown overall, especially since it ran out of the first iteration of the device as early as April in some stores. Apple said that it underestimated demand for the device during the last quarter, and because of that didn't sell one iPhone during the last half, or six weeks, of the period. Finally, CNET has a good story detailing all the questions analysts will have about where those first million iPhone 3Gs were sold, the server problems that "tainted" the launch and what impact that had on first experiences with the device.

All this begs a few questions: Did Apple really underestimate initial demand for the iPhone 3G so soon after bringing iPhone sales to a standstill for much of the previous quarter? Or is it creating more demand by keeping supply low? Regardless of the reason for the shortage, it opens up a nice window of opportunity for BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion and its soon-to-launch Bold. Will RIM ( NSDQ: RIMM) release the Bold in time to take advantage of the iPhone shortage or will Apple and AT&T stores get stocked up again before RIM pulls the trigger?