Demand for the new iPhone 5 has exceeded initial supply, making it the fastest-selling Apple smartphone ever and pushing the delivery date for some pre-orders to next month.
Apple confirmed today that pre-orders for the new mobile device surpassed two million in the first 24 hours. The majority of pre-ordered phones will be delivered as planned by September 21, but many will not be delivered until October, it said.
Pre-orders "have shattered the previous record held by iPhone 4S, and the customer response to iPhone 5 has been phenomenal," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing.
Pre-orders have shattered the previous record held by iPhone 4S.
It is not unusual for Apple products to sell out the first day. Orders for the previous iPhone, the 4S, the last product the company introduced before the death of co-founder Steve Jobs, surpassed one million in the first 24 hours, beating Apple's previous one-day record of 600,000 sales for the iPhone 4.
Apple's US store, www.apple.com, on Monday morning showed pre-orders for the iPhone 5 would take two to three weeks to ship.
Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White said demand was well above expectations.
"Given the much stronger-than-expected iPhone 5 pre-order sales, we expect a meaningful jump in the three-day sales results for the iPhone 5 compared to the over four million iPhone 4S weekend sales last year," he said.
Although more consumers were opting for the pre-order method, White still expects long lines Friday when the phone goes on sale in stores.
Apple began taking orders for the iPhone 5 at midnight Pacific time September 14 (7am GMT September 15). Shipping dates for the slimmer, faster smartphone slipped by a week within an hour of the start of pre-orders.
Apple previously said it would start shipping the iPhone 5 by September 21 in the United States and most of the major markets of Europe such as France, Germany and the UK. It goes on sale September 28 in 22 other countries.
Analysts have forecast that more than 30 million iPhones, including older models, will be sold by the end of September. Sales of iPhones account for more than half of Apple's revenue.
