Crush of 5 million iPhone 13 preorders in China took down websites

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone edited September 2021
Chinese state media estimates that in excess of 5 million preorders were made for the iPhone 13 range, and the volume overwhelmed Apple's China website.

The new iPhone 13 Pro
The new iPhone 13 Pro


China began taking preorders for the iPhone 13 range ahead of the US, and initial reports claimed sales were outpacing those of the iPhone 12 in 2020. Now Chinese state media is saying, the total number of preorders for phones in the range has exceeded 5 million.

According to the South China Morning Post, the figure counts preorders across third-party sites as well as Apple's own online store. Reportedly Chinese retailer JD.com alone took over 3 million preorders.

Apple's own China website is reported to have been slowed to a crawl during the first preorder day. A #ApplesWebsiteIsDown hashtag was trending on social media site Weibo, getting over 460 million views.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max was the first to go on backorder, but reportedly it was shortly followed by all iPhone 13 models. Delivery dates are now estimated to begin in the second week of October, as opposed to the original September 24 date.

The South China Morning Post attributes the strong sales in part lower prices in the region. It also says that Apple is benefiting from how, because of US trade sanctions, Huawei's latest P50 and P50 Pro phones lack 5G.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    A bit surprising. Where has all this pent up demand come from? I can’t see any particular feature of the iPhone 13 driving this.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    ivanhivanh Posts: 597member
    Then, China has the latest A15 chips.  Thank you Tim.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    mike_gallowaymike_galloway Posts: 106member
    ivanh said:
    Then, China has the latest A15 chips.  Thank you Tim.
    Care to explain the comment? some of us are a little slow here, and reasoning behind a comment is always helpful
    Beatswatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 7
    thrangthrang Posts: 1,008member
    crowley said:
    A bit surprising. Where has all this pent up demand come from? I can’t see any particular feature of the iPhone 13 driving this.
    I'm not sure why you are surprised. The rough number is around 450 million users with iPhones three years old or older... this makes the 13 a huge upgrade. Add to that the aggressive carrier offers this year, and wider 5g coverage, it would seem inevitable to that this would be a large cycle. Negatives would be COVID-whatever, cessation of stimulus checks, 

    The mistake made is looking at things from a current 12 user considering the 13. Nice upgrade but not revolutionary for many (though better cameras and battery life are meaningful to many). But upgrade cycles are not hard year to year, the cycles are, well, cyclical and staggered for the subsets of users with differing phone ages. My wife and daughter didn't upgrade last year but are this year. Two and three year cycle for them respectively. Two friends visiting are moving the the Galaxy S8+ to the 13 Pro Max, with a $450 credit from Verizon for those pieces of crap.

    And as more and more people use the Apple Upgrade program, it's an easy decision to re-up every year for about the same monthly cost....


    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 7
    bshankbshank Posts: 255member
    crowley said:
    A bit surprising. Where has all this pent up demand come from? I can’t see any particular feature of the iPhone 13 driving this.
    The article states lower prices and other phones in China not having 5G due to US trade sanctions on China. It’s right in the article.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 7
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    bshank said:
    crowley said:
    A bit surprising. Where has all this pent up demand come from? I can’t see any particular feature of the iPhone 13 driving this.
    The article states lower prices and other phones in China not having 5G due to US trade sanctions on China. It’s right in the article.
    Yes, but I still find that a bit surprising, if not doubtful.  Low prices make the iPhone an attractive alternative, but I doubt it's a massive generator of demand by itself, I don't think smartphone upgrades (particularly preorders) are much of an impulse purchase.  And Huawei is just one maker, there are other 5G phones in China.  Super cycles are usually driven by particular new attractive features, and the iPhone 13 doesn't seem to have any standout aspect, even if it is better in lots of ways.
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