Many people could be disappointed come Christmas morning as a shortage of iPhones – the UAE’s top present this year – continues despite new stock arriving daily.
Demand for the gadget has seen the handset snapped up as soon as it hits the shelves by eager shoppers who have promised a loved-one it will be in their stocking on Friday morning.
According to a report by the National on Wednesday, the shortage problem has been made worse by customers buying dozens of the devices at a time.
Telecommunication firms Etisalat and du told the paper they had been inundated with calls about the iPhone in the run-up to Christmas.
Waiting lists are more than 100-strong, with many stores selling out on the day new stocks arrived on the shelves, it reported.
“Every day I have 10 or 15 people looking for the iPhone,” Ravi Jane, an Etisalat sales clerk at Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi, told the paper.
It costs around AED2,800 ($760) to buy a top-of-the-range 3GS, 32-gigabyte handset through Etisalat or du.
A spokesman for Etisalat told the paper iPhones were being sent daily to stores across the emirates.
He told the paper the company’s marketing division “told me they’re sending every day and distributing every day or every couple days and feeding the market”.
du declined to comment to the paper.
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