1 million preorders for iPhone 6 in China in six hours
Staff Reporter
2014-10-02
Apple vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller introduces the iPhone 6 in Cupertino, California, Sept. 9. (Photo/Xinhua)
China's "big three" telecom carriers — China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile — recorded over 1 million preorders for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus only six hours after they began accepting them for the new phone's Oct. 10 debut. Apple retailers began allowing for preorders on Sept. 17 of this month. The October release of the newest Apple smartphone models comes nearly a month after its initial release in selected countries, reports Chinese technology news website Tencent.
Buyers have been able to place their preorders at operators' online and brick-and-mortar stores as well as their subsidiaries. The total number of preorders could exceed 2 million if they included those sold through distributors such as Suning Appliance and D.Phone.
China Telecom will offer the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, supporting network formats such as 2G, 3G, 4G as well as LTEFDD, TD-LTE, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, EVDO and GSM. Buyers will be able to connect to all major Chinese networks. Operators do not have any plan to sell an unlocked version of the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus at present, but will allow its subscribers to pay 100 yuan (US$16.30) for 400 yuan (US$65) of calls, voice mails and text messages.
China Unicom plans to offer iPhones that support all network formats but has not yet revealed its package plans. The carrier also has no plan to sell unlocked iPhones but will allow its customers to preorder and later switch to the latest iPhones without changing their number.
China Mobile, the country's largest carrier by subscriber numbers, offers an unlocked version of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus as well as smartphones with a contract agreement. Buyers of the unlocked version will be given 2GB of data for use with 2G, 3G or 4G networks and receive discounts if they purchase an installment plan. Contracted iPhone buyers will be offered discounts or free calling options. The locked phones will not support WCDMA and FDD-LTE network formats in China but these can be activated if the phone is used abroad.
Preorders are predicted to influence sales of parallel-import iPhones though the result should be negligible, say analysts, who added that sellers who hoarded iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets have nearly sold out their stocks and now only have few, low-spec devices.
