As I was on vacation all last week, I was unable to buy an iPhone, even though I wanted one very badly after using the 2.0 software on my iPod Touch all week - the AppStore is terriffic and has convinced me to dump my beloved Blackberry 8800. (note: I didn’t want to buy it while away on vacation, because if you need to return it, you need to return it to the store you bought it from, without exception).

When I got home on Sunday, I decided I would check the Apple Store iPhone Availability page after 9PM to see which stores had inventory. If the flagship Fifth Avenue store had some, I would go down at 9PM and grab one before they stop selling iPhones at 11:30 PM (don’t ask me why a store open 24/7 stops selling iPhones after 11:30 PM, but I guess its because they wouldn’t have the staff for a late-night rush of drunken iPhone shoppers).

As it turns out, the Fifth Avenue store was the *only* store in the entire Tri-State area which had iPhones - but only the 16GB white ones. I am not getting a white iPhone.

From what I understand, even the stores are not aware of when, if, or how many iPhones will be delivered to their store on any given day, and inventory is doled out according to the percentage of sales made to that location on launch day.

Unfortunately, they get their deliveries in the morning and the inventory app is not updated until 9PM, which means you could conceivably be able to get one in the morning at a given store, even if the previous nights inventory indicated they were sold out.

For some strange reason, the Apple website does not let you check the previous night’s inventory during the day on its website - it only appears the night before. However, you can use this app, which caches the previous nights results, to check during the day.

Good luck!