Customers pre-ordered more than four million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets in just the first 24 hours, according to Apple, around double the number the company saw for the iPhone 5s and 5c a year ago. Apple is on track to top 10 million units sold over the entire launch weekend, if the tech giant can keep up with the level of demand.
The smartphones first became available for pre-order at midnight Pacific Daylight Time on Friday, despite a somewhat embarrassing hiccup that caused Apple’s online store to crash for a few hours. The roadblock did not appear to have any effect on sales, however, as the company now faces supply problems in getting its products into consumers hands.
See You in October
The original delivery date for the new iPhones was Friday, September 19. The iPhone 6 Plus, which comes with the larger 5.5-inch display, almost immediately became unavailable for delivery by that date as demand exhausted supply. Both the iPhone 6 Plus and the smaller 4.7-inch iPhone 6 will be available for purchase in Apple retail stores starting Friday.
The company is expected to sell 37.4 million units in the fourth quarter, and 60 million units in the first quarter of 2015, according to analysts at Janney Capital Markets. The massive number of orders means some customers may not receive their phones until October.
Pre-orders made Monday won’t be delivered for three to four weeks, according to the company’s online store. Carriers such as AT&T and Verizon are also having trouble keeping up with demand for the new models, and may have trouble shipping the new units before October.
That likely will not be soon enough for fanatics, who are already lining up outside Apple’s retail store in Manhattan in the hopes of taking home the phones when they go on sale Friday.
Blame the Upgrade Cycle
At least part of the huge demand for the new models is being driven by the timing of the upgrade cycle, Stephen Baker, vice president of Industry Analysis at the NPD Group, told us.
“It has been apparent since the start of speculation about this iPhone cycle that it was likely to be the biggest, and the most groundbreaking since the original iPhone,” Baker said. “All the industry and consumer pieces are in place for an enormous upgrade cycle. Apple has the right products at the right time to take advantage of this, as the volume of pre-orders shows.”
Both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus represent major upgrades in terms of screen-size over earlier models. The iPhone 5 series sport only 4-inch displays, while the iPhone 4 units seems tiny in comparison, with only a 3.5-inch screen. The surge in pre-orders may have represented pent-up demand from iPhone 4 users who were holding out for a bigger screen before upgrading their devices.
Apple made the prospect of upgrading to one of the new models even more attractive by launching Apple Pay, a new virtual wallet that promises to entirely replace plastic credit cards while providing enhanced security payment security.
The introduction of the Apple Watch, which is set to ship in early 2015, may provide a second reason to upgrade this year. Although the smart watch will work with any iPhone from the 5 up, users with earlier models may be opting to go for one of the iPhone 6 models, rather than the iPhone 5.
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