After a considerable delay, Apple finally launched the iPhone 5 in China this past weekend. The Cupertino company has already proudly boasted sales figures of over 2 million in the first weekend alone.
China has always been hailed as a huge market for smartphones, and it goes to show when you look at Apple’s figures. Back in October when the iPhone 5 launched worldwide, 5 million handsets were sold in the first weekend. Granted, Apple says they ran out of stock and could have potentially sold more, but one country has almost reached half the worldwide sales alone.
“Customer response to iPhone 5 in China has been incredible, setting a new record with the best first weekend sales ever in China,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “China is a very important market for us and customers there cannot wait to get their hands on Apple products.”
Some analysts predicted ahead of the launch that Apple had begun to lose favour in China, with some even saying that the iPhone 5 would not outsell the current iPhone 4S. In comparison, the 4S sold around 1 million devices during the opening weekend of sales in China.
The sales figures are very impressive, especially considering the lack of a partnership between Apple and the country’s biggest network operator, China Mobile. Reports suggest a deal is in the works between the two in order to bump sales figures even higher, but for the meantime networks such as China Unicom totted up an impressive 300,000 reservations for the device ahead of the weekend.
Apple had to put into place a special ordering system to prevent so-called ‘scalpers’, who buy the phones in bulk to sell on the black market or to import to other markets illegally. Customers are required to register with Apple online before being able to collect a phone in store, which is said to reduce the chance of scalpers, but could also lower potential sales.