APPiper Jaffray Apple analyst Gene Munster did some channel checks on the iPhone.
Turns out, it's still hard to get your hands on a new iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus in the US.
Munster tracks a variety of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models. He says that his checks reveal only 56% of the phones are in stock.
On November 20, he did a similar check and found that 58% of phones were available. So, in the past month, iPhone 6 supply has gotten slightly worse.
(Although, confusingly, Munster says when he checked on November 14, only 0.4% of the models were in stock. Bottom line, Apple is having trouble keeping phones in stores.)
Munster says he would have expected 80% of units to be in stock by now.
This suggests that iPhone sales will be stronger in the January-March period next year, as iPhone purchases are delayed. Munster thinks Apple's revenue will be 3-5% ahead of expectations as a result.
While we can't say if this is an issue of overwhelming demand, or underwhelming supply, our guess would be that this about strong demand.