Preorders for the new iPhones have not yet opened in China, but many carriers set up pre-launch pages where customers can reserve an iPhone 6 before the phone officially goes on sale in the country. Of course, not all of these reservations will turn into real sales, but it’s still a strong show of demand ahead of the October 10 preorder launch date.
The Chinese government delayed approval of the iPhone 6 due to a number of concerns that have since been resolved. Now that the iPhones have the regulators’ approval, everything else should go without a hitch. The handsets will arrive in stores on October 17, one week after preorders start. Still, some analysts say that the delayed launch of the new iPhones in China may hurt sales.
Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that black market sales of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus had slowed dramatically, with some retailers slashing prices. While some predicted that the iPhone 6 would be a flop in China, others argued that slowing black market sales were caused by news of the impending official launch. Based on the new report of huge reservations for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, it seems that fears may prove unfounded.
The four million reservations seem to indicate that interest in the new iPhones is high in China. The report also hinted that the iPhone 6 Plus may be more popular in the country than the smaller iPhone 6. Retailer Jingdong reportedly has 1,106,379 reservations for the iPhone 6 and 1,189,083 for the iPhone 6 Plus. The same trend may also be happening in other countries, as a DigiTimes report says that 60 percent of all iPhone 6 sales go to the larger iPhone 6 Plus. It seems that Apple’s phablet has a slight edge over smaller models.
