The jet black iPhone 7 is all gone
Apple shares surged for the fourth straight day as evidence mounted that the iPhone 7 won’t be a dud, after all.
The Cupertino, Calif., tech giant’s stock added 3.4 percent, to close at $115.57, bringing the company’s market capitalization to nearly $623 billion — its highest level in 10 months.
The latest rallying point: Initial shipments of the new, jet-black version of the iPhone 7, as well as the iPhone 7 Plus — the larger model with a souped-up camera — have sold out online worldwide.
As such, those two models won’t be available to everyone at the iPhone’s annual retail ritual in which lengthy queues of obsessed shoppers form outside Apple stores for a Friday morning launch.
“During the online pre-order period, initial quantities of iPhone 7 Plus in all finishes and iPhone 7 in jet back sold out and will not be available for walk-in customers,” Apple said in a statement late Wednesday.
The four-day rally in Apple shares — propelled mainly by upbeat comments from all four major US wireless carriers about initial iPhone 7 demand — has left the stock 12 percent higher this week.
Seven days earlier, the shares had tanked after the new iPhone was unveiled. At the time, analysts and investors complained that it looked little different from the iPhone 6 and 6s models of the past two years.
“We believe a number of recent data points suggest a better than expected iPhone 7 cycle,” Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha wrote in a Thursday research note, reiterating an outperform rating on the shares.
As reported by The Post, one key driver has been the return of carrier subsidies, with Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile all offering trade-in deals that allow customers to get an iPhone 7 for free.