The sale of Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus – 10 million+ in three days following the September 19,2014 launch-has set up a new record, breaking last year’s sales figures of the new iPhone 5C and 5S, which reached 9 million in the first few days.
The record has been set even as the Chinese government has not yet approved the latest model for sale whereas the first-weekend total in 2013 was helped by sales in China, which, analysts say, has the highest percentage of iPhone users in the whole world.
According to Apple, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus had already taken a head start preceding the inauguration, touching 4 million pre-orders in the initial 24 hours of obtainability.
Following the unprecedented sale, Apple is facing a shortage of iPhone 6 Plus, and orders will face a 30 day delay after pre-booking.
“Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier,” said Apple’s CEO Tim Cook.
He said “sell-through” – phones bought by end customers rather than by mobile networks – had shattered previous figures “by a large margin”. He added that Apple is able to measure sell-through based on phone activations, which require the device to contact Apple servers during setup.
“While our team managed the manufacturing ramp better than ever before, we could have sold many more iPhones with greater supply and we are working hard to fill orders as quickly as possible,” Cook added.
A survey by Gazelle, a Boston-based phone trade-in company, has revealed that a third of Android users are likely to move to the iPhone 6, up from about 10 percent a year ago when the iPhone 5S and 5C first went on sale.
In the United States, the new iPhones are available through AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Apple Authorised Resellers including Best Buy, Radio Shack, Target and Wal-Mart.
Apple added that it would make the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus available to more than 20 countries on September 26, including Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Isle of Man, New Zealand, and United Arab Emirates.
Both these phones will be sold in 115 countries by the end of the year.
