Apple Inc.'s retail stores are running out of iPhones, a sign the company may soon introduce a new version of the Web-surfing handset, Piper Jaffray & Co. said.
At least 20 of Apple's 180 stores in the U.S. are out of iPhones and Apple is telling online shoppers it may take as long as seven days to fill their orders, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster of Minneapolis said in a report today.
``We are working to replenish iPhone supplies as quickly as we can,'' Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said. ``Our stores continue to receive shipments every day.''
The short supply may mean Apple is preparing a new iPhone that operates on so-called third-generation wireless networks, Munster said. Those networks allow faster Internet downloads than are available on the two models Apple now sells. The new version may sell for $400 and look like the current model, he said.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, rose $6.03, or 4.2 percent, to $149.53 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares, which Munster advises investors to buy, have declined 25 percent this year.
