Apple has turned Store pickup for the iPhone Duo back on in the U.S. and Canada, but most stores have no slots to give.
The option returned between 5:10 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. Pacific Time. Before that, it had been available for only a few minutes after pre-orders opened on October 16, then disappeared. Pickup has also resumed in Australia, the U.K., Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, Japan, China and some other countries.
To check your local store, open the iPhone Duo order page, choose a color and storage size, and click the link next to "Pickup" at the bottom. Enter your ZIP code and the page shows any models with a reserved time slot.
The scarcity follows from the wait times. Delivery estimates for online orders now stretch into late January, so a phone in hand from a store counts for a lot. Apple said it is working to meet demand "as quickly as possible." Long queues formed at many Apple Stores around the world, and some customers walked out with a phone on a walk-in basis.
A pickup tool that appears briefly, vanishes, then returns with almost nothing on offer looks like stock being released in small batches, though that is our inference. Apple has not said how many units it has or when more will arrive.
That gap is the real question. Late January delivery dates imply a shortfall measured in months, not days, and a pickup page that refreshes with empty calendars will not close it.