Customers in China are dying to get the handset

Oct 2, 2014 09:58 GMT  ·  By

Reports from China are emerging saying Apple has scored another 2 million iPhone 6 reservations in the country, weeks before the official launch is scheduled.

Apple said pre-orders would be accepted beginning October 10, but retailers and carriers in China jumped the gun and started taking pre-orders early.

12 million sold so far

On September 22, after the phone’s opening weekend, Apple announced that it had sold a whopping 10 million units to customers in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, and the UK. Unlike previous years, China was not on that list.

“Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We would like to thank all of our customers for making this our best launch ever, shattering all previous sell-through records by a large margin. 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.”

The company then quickly confirmed its plans to make the phones available in more than 20 additional countries on September 26.

Those territories included Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

China love

Apple has showed a lot of affection for customers in the Far East lately, but regulatory hurdles have kept the devices off the shelves this year. Following the regulators’ green light, the company announced plans to deploy iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in China on October 17, with pre-order availability starting on October 10.

The handsets will be officially available from the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores, and all three major carriers in the country. Apple authorized resellers are also on the list.

Sales opened early

According to Chinese media, some of these parties have already started taking reservations for the handsets. Two million units were booked in just six hours after the reservation announcement was made. That number could well be higher at the time of this writing.

It isn’t clear if this is a breach of contract with Apple or if the Cupertino giant even minds at all. Considering the demand, they can’t be too sad about it.

For those of you asking, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be available in 115 countries by the end of 2014.