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Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus scooped up 4 million reservations in China by Friday, according to Chinese media estimates cited by Fortune.
A single e-commerce site called Jingdong is responsible for 2.3 million reservations, Fortune reported, citing Chinese website Tencent.
The new iPhones went on sale in the US and other countries on September 19. But China wasn’t on the launch list due to the absence of regulatory approval. The country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had to approve the new iPhones for network access before retailers could start selling them. The approval came through earlier this week, as confirmed by Apple on Tuesday.
Since then, reservations for the iPhone 6 have taken off among Chinese consumers. A report published Thursday by Chinese website Sina pointed to “incomplete statistics” indicating that Chinese carriers and retail outlets saw 2 million reservations for the new handsets in the first six hours. Some published estimates cited by Fortune said that 1 million of those reservations were from China’s three major mobile carriers, while the other million were from retailers.
China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom are accepting reservations as are some of China’s largest Apple licensed retailers, such as Gome and Sunning, Fortune said. One source said that China Unicom reportedly took in 600,000 reservations alone in the first two hours.
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As Fortune notes, reservations aren’t the same as actual preorders. With a preorder, you actually buy the product and then pick it up at your local store or have it shipped to you when it’s available. A reservation is more of a promise or commitment to buy an item. You’re essentially reserving your place in line to be put on a waiting list so that you can then preorder the phone.
Chinese consumers can preorder the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus from Apple’s online store starting October 10. The new iPhones officially go on sale in China on October 17.
Is either model of iPhone proving more popular? According to Jingdong, they are both doing equally well with about 1.1 million reservations with the iPhone 6 and about 1.2 million for iPhone 6 Plus.
A spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment on the report.
