For our wireless wonderful friends, we would like to give them the the best hottest wireless gadget, smartphones or accessories. However, rumors and inflated accusations may keep us from getting the right gift. While fear of shortages may cause us to pay too much. Wireless and Mobile News has investigated shortage and sold-out claims to fin the truth about the BlackBerry Storm, Xperia X1, Kindle, T-Mobile Shadow and T-Mobile G 1.
Webster's Definition of sold-out is having all available tickets or accommodations sold completely and especially in advance. Let's see what devices are actually "sold-out."
BackBerry Storm Shortage - eBay sellers are stating "SOLD OUT EVERYWHERE" and BlackBerry Storms are selling at around $400.00. A search on LetsTalk
showed no listing at all for BlackBerry Storm, but lots of other BlackBerries. Wirefly's website shows, "Ships When Available." At Verizon's website the notice states, "Will Ship by 12/16." Amazon.com offers free two-day shipping but also notes "usually ships in within 4-6 weeks."
Wireless and Mobile called one of the busiest stores on the west coast and talked to sales associate. If you were to walk into a Verizon store today, you can purchase a BlackBerry Storm , it will be shipped by Decbmer 16. As an added bonus instead of a mail-in rebate, you get an "instant" in-store $50 rebate. Everday, Verizon employees get a ship date for the BlackBerry Storm. Verizon employees have not been informed when they will have BlackBery Storms in stock.
Since BlackBerry Storms are available for those who order and wait, we would put this in the category of "back-ordered." By Webster's definition since they are available we can't classify the BlackBerry Storm as sold-out completely because they are not sold-out in "advance."
Sony Xperia X1 Shortage/Recall - Yesterday, we called Sony Style Stores and confimed, there will not be any Xperia X1 in Sony stores any time soon.
Our ace investigation revealed a recall due to the firmware and network
compatibilty issues. Although there appears to some Xperia X1 avaialbe
on eBay in the $800 range, there are fewer than yesterday. Sony Xperia X1were some
sold-out on Black Friday from stores but since they are pulled from the
stores, we classify the Xperia X1 as 'recalled." They will be available
in January.
T-Mobile Shadow - although eBay sellers are saying that the
brown T-Mobile Shadow is sold-out, it is available in copper from Wirefly for free for new customers with a two-year contract. It is still availble from the T-Mobile website for $149.99 after rebates with a
contract. A sales associate told us that they are "phasing out" this
model thatis not being shipped to stores any more. This one we classify as
"phase-out" rather than sold-out.
T-Mobile G1 Google Android WHITE or BROWN - if you order your T-Mobile G1 from the T-Mobile website you may be able to get it in white or brown. T-Mobile stores have plenty of the T-Mobile G1 phones in black, while the white and brown in short supply. You can also call T-Mobile to see if you can get a G1 Android phone delivered in white or brown. The white and brown are much prettier.
THE ONLY TRULY SOLD-OUT DEVICE IS
Kindle eBook - The top supplier of Kindles, Amazon, is
completely sold-out of the present model, we confirmed yesterday. The Wall Street Journal suggested the reason why the Kindle is "out of stock" is that Oprah recommended it on her show in October. An
Alternative is the Sony eBook Reader. There is a new model expected to come out next year.
Note: All the information contained in this article is current as of the time of writing of this article and may change over time.