Apple iPhone 6 pre-orders top 4 million as demand outstrips supply

New smartphones due to be available in the UAE from September 26, though Apple warns of a backlog due to record demand.

Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the new Apple Watch iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus during Apple's launch event at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts in Cupertino, California on September 9, 2014. MoniShow more

Apple’s new larger-screen iPhones topped 4 million in pre-orders in the first 24 hours, surpassing earlier releases as demand for the smartphones outstrips supply.

Deliveries of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will start at the end of this week, when the smartphones officially go on sale, and a backlog will mean that many won’t receive their handsets until next month, the Cupertino, California-based company said in a statement. Apple said there will be devices in stock in stores on September 19 and encouraged customers to arrive early or order online for in-store pickup. The devices are scheduled to be available in the UAE from September 26.

Chief executive Tim Cook is counting on the bigger phones to counter Samsung’s larger displays and to usher in demand for other products Apple introduced last week, from the Apple Watch to the credit card-substituting Apple Pay service. The company had indicated that the new smartphones would take as many as four weeks to ship. The iPhone 6 has a 4.7-inch display and the iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5-inch one, while the previous iPhones have a 4-inch screen.

“It speaks to the pent-up demand for a larger iPhone,” Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, said in a telephone interview. “Apple will actually have record quarters for the minimum of the next two years just because of this kind of demand.”

The pre-orders are double the 2 million Apple announced in 2012 when it released the iPhone 5, and compares with the 9 million the company sold during the opening weekend last year for the iPhone 5s and 5c.

“We are thrilled customers love them as much as we do,” Mr Cook said.

The iPhone remains the most important piece of Apple’s business. The handset accounted for about half of Apple’s $171 billion in revenue last fiscal year. With sales of the iPad slowing down, the company needs to keep the iPhone a blockbuster in order to maintain growth.

Apple fell less than 1 per cent to $101.60 at the close in New York. The shares are up 27 per cent this year, compared with a 7.3 per cent gain for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

The iPhone 6 costs $199 to $399 with a two-year contract, while the 6 Plus is priced at $299 to $499. The devices will come in silver, gold and space gray.

Demand for the handsets has Apple poised to sell more than 61 million iPhones in the December quarter, surpassing last year’s record 51 million sold, Barclays said in a note today.

“We believe significant demand will even spill into the March and June quarters given supply and the timing of shipments in China,” Ben Reitzes, an analyst at Barclays, wrote in the note.

This isn’t the first time Apple and phone carriers have seen iPhone models delayed well before they were available in stores. In 2012, the iPhone 5 was delayed for shipment by a week after a rush of orders, and in 2011 the iPhone 4S sold out at AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint Nextel Corp. only five days after pre-orders began.

The new devices will go on sale first in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK On September 26, 20 additional countries will begin selling the handsets.

China, one of Apple’s biggest markets, won’t get the new devices at first, though the company said it plans to have the handsets in 115 countries by the end of the year.

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