Photograph by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
An attendee demonstrates the iPhone 6 Plus after the product announcement at Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif., on Sept. 9
Apple (AAPL) has booked a record number of preorders for its new iPhones, with more than 4 million in the first 24 hours.
The company didn’t give a breakdown of which phone was the more popular between the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. Apple’s website now says preorders for the iPhone 6 will ship in seven to 10 days, while the larger phones will ship in three to four weeks. There will be additional supplies of the new phones at retail locations when in-store sales begin on Friday morning.
Apple was overwhelmed on Sept. 12 as it started accepting online preorders. It marked the second time in a week that Apple’s website buckled from the attention, a sign of immense interest in the new devices amid the surging popularity of rival large-size smartphones. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook brushed aside the suggestion that Apple’s move into larger phones was a response to Samsung. “We ship things when we’re ready,” he said, arguing that the technology for the display and the battery had advanced in recent years.
Cook said that people who had been using other smartphones would likely switch to Apple in large numbers, laying out his view of Apple’s advantage: “The ingenuity here, and the fact that we’re integrated hardware, software, and services—which I think only Apple can do.”
The company will likely sell more iPhones this weekend, when retail sales begin, than on any previous weekend. Any other result would break the pattern of its past iPhone launches, each of which has been bigger than the last.
