Here’s why you can’t buy an iPhone or iPad from Apple right now

Everyone else is still selling them though

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You’ve been saving up your pennies, eking out the last drops of use from your mobile, but today’s the day: you’ve set October 18 as the day you buy a newiPhone 13. You head over toApple.com, only to find… you can’t buy a new Apple gadget?

That’s right -Apple’s online store is currently down, meaning you can’t buy a new iPhone, iPad,Apple Watchor other such gadget there. Luckily every single retailer under the sun is still selling the company’s gadgets, so you can easily find aniPhone 13 dealwithout Apple’s help.

Apple sells iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, TV hardware and AirPods on its website, and while you can still find the listings for them live, clicking any of the ‘buy’ links takes you to a page saying “be right back”.

Where are Ü now Apple?

Why is the Apple website down at all? No, this isn’t another case of a widespread internet outage, despite the number of them happening all the time. In fact, it’s a very deliberate move by Apple.

There’s anApple October eventhappening today, and we’re expecting to see theAirPods 3,AirPods Pro 2or a newMacBook Pro(or likely some combination of all of them and more).

You can check out ourlive blog for the event here, though the proceedings only properly kick off at 10am PDT / 1pm EDT / 6pm BST / 4am November 11 AEST.

For all its product launches, Apple temporarily takes its store offline, so it can make adjustments to the site ready for all the new information and devices. It sometimes takes the website offline in the hour leading up to the unveiling, and sometimes hours in advance.

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Sure, it could be a little annoying that Apple is stopping you buying an iPhone, when there’s no chance new iPhones will be unveiled (it’s been a month since the last ones came out - the company isn’t that quick) but this is the way it always works.

If you can wait a few hours, the website will come back online. Alternatively, you can go to any other retailer, but if you’ve got a discount like the student reduction, other shops might not accept it, so you should just wait.

Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.

He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist.

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