Today I went through the motions expecting to be able to pre-order the iPhone 6 Plus 128gb Space Grey model for a relative with a little bit of fuss, but still possible.
It seems to be impossible. Telstra isn't even willing to accept $3,240 24 month contracts for it! Truly unbelievable. Optus blatantly lied to her saying she could pre-order at 5.01pm 12/09/2014. Vodaphone plain doesn't respond - however to their credit I easily found the questions asked by other people via twitter.
Basically they don't know much about stock, can't let you pre-order, cannot guarantee stock levels or just about anything. Troubling is that Vodafone claims it may come in 2-3 weeks if you order on the 19th.
You'd think Apple would be thrilled that so many people want to buy their phone. If I cannot buy it no way can an average consumer purchase it.
And yes, I went to the Apple store reservation page and it says Unavailable.
TL;DR: Unable to pre-order iPhone Plus 128gb on a plan or anywhere really. ETA arrival seems to be 2-3 weeks after release for delivery stock best case.
Could be supply chain issues? Never overpromise when it could all just underdeliver.
Fun fact: Japan has the cheapest price, whilst the French are going to pay the most for it.
Apple runs on secrecy. They would have servers of data to model how to allocate their first batch of inventory and at what price. Chances are Australia just isn't getting enough and so they've told the telcos only tentative low numbers.
The telcos don't want to have lots of angry fanboys if they pre-sell too many and Apple takes some allocation off them to give to another one or another market.
Seriously, just get an S5 already. Sheesh.