techdae has been tracking iPhone 17 inventory every Friday since the four new models went on sale online. We started on the first preorder day, September 12, and more than two months later stock is still constrained in several markets, especially across North America. Each week, we check the same countries and use the shipping estimates from Apple’s local online stores as a proxy for demand, which has revealed a few clear – and sometimes surprising – trends.
Initially, the iPhone 17 Pro Max was the obvious bestseller. It was the first to sell out on preorder day and remained consistently hard to get for weeks. Even more surprising, though, is the performance of the regular iPhone 17. The base model sold out over the first preorder weekend and has stayed sold out in key markets like the U.S. ever since. By contrast, the iPhone 17 Pro – which usually sees stronger early demand – is now in stock in all the markets we monitor. The iPhone Air has been the least constrained of the four, with almost no shipping delays showing online. China was a notable exception last month, but that was largely because the ultra‑thin Air only went on sale there in mid‑October following regulatory approval.
What stands out this week is a shift in where the bottlenecks are. In the U.S., iPhone 17 availability has improved after several weeks of severe supply constraints. At the same time, some European markets are once again seeing longer delivery times compared to last week. Across these regions, one thing is consistent: the base iPhone 17 now has longer wait times than the iPhone 17 Pro Max – a remarkable twist for Apple’s most affordable new model.
This week’s iPhone 17 shipping estimates
Every Friday, we run the same stock check on Apple’s website. We visit the local online stores for the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, China, and Japan, then simulate purchasing every storage and color combination for each iPhone 17 model. For any configuration that isn’t available for immediate shipment, Apple provides a delayed delivery estimate.
Here is how shipping times look this week:
- iPhone 17 Pro Max: 3–5 business days (U.S., Canada, U.K., Switzerland, Germany, China); in stock (France,
Ireland, Japan) - iPhone 17 Pro: In stock (U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, China, Japan)
- iPhone 17: 1–2 weeks (U.S., Canada); 7–10 business days (Germany, Switzerland); in stock (U.K., France, Ireland,
China, Japan) - iPhone Air: In stock (U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, China, Japan)
Taken together, these estimates suggest that anyone who hasn’t yet bought an iPhone 17 should be able to get one right away or within at most two weeks in the countries we track. It is reasonable to expect that many other international markets are seeing similar patterns, even if we are not checking them weekly. If you want one of the four new iPhones in time for the holidays, you should have no trouble securing it. In particular, the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro are widely available online and are very likely sitting on shelves at local Apple Stores as well.
What the wait times actually mean
There is still plenty of uncertainty behind these numbers. Apple does not disclose how much inventory it allocates to each market, so a model that shows as “in stock” today could slip to a multi‑day delay as soon as local warehouses are depleted. That is exactly what happened this week in Germany and Switzerland, where shipping windows for some iPhone 17 configurations have quietly stretched out again.
The flip side is that availability can improve just as quickly. Shipping times for the base iPhone 17 in the U.S., for example, have already inched down compared to last week. For now, though, the story remains the same: the Pro Max is no longer the only scarcity story of the lineup – the entry‑level iPhone 17 has become the hardest model to get.
