Chinese iPhone 5 preorders soar past 300,000 ahead of Friday launch
Just days before the iPhone 5 is set to go on sale in China, the nation's second largest carrier announced on Monday that preorders for the device have reached over 300,000 units less than a week after initiating reservations.
Source: China Unicom
In a post to its official Sina Weibo microblog (via MacWorld), China Unicom said pre-sale orders for Apple's newest handset now stand at over 300,000, meaning the telecom added some 200,000 reservations to the 100,000 recorded a day after reservations went live.
The 16 GB is the predominant favorite among preorder customers with 85 percent opting for the most economical model, while the 32 GB and 64 GB versions accounted for 12 percent and 3 percent, respectively. Distribution of orders saw Beijing racking up the most orders, followed by Guangdong, Shandong, Shanghai and Liaoning.
A further breakdown of orders shows some 74 percent of reservations come from males, with the provider suggesting that many will be given as gifts to girlfriends. As for purchases by age, the 20-year old to 30-year old demographic accounts for the bulk of preorders with 52 percent, followed by those aged 30-years old to 40-years old with 34 percent.
China Unicom is Apple's largest partner carrier in the country, with China Telecom coming in second. Both telecoms are readying to start sales on Dec. 14 as part of the fastest rollout in Apple's history.
Source: China Unicom
In a post to its official Sina Weibo microblog (via MacWorld), China Unicom said pre-sale orders for Apple's newest handset now stand at over 300,000, meaning the telecom added some 200,000 reservations to the 100,000 recorded a day after reservations went live.
The 16 GB is the predominant favorite among preorder customers with 85 percent opting for the most economical model, while the 32 GB and 64 GB versions accounted for 12 percent and 3 percent, respectively. Distribution of orders saw Beijing racking up the most orders, followed by Guangdong, Shandong, Shanghai and Liaoning.
A further breakdown of orders shows some 74 percent of reservations come from males, with the provider suggesting that many will be given as gifts to girlfriends. As for purchases by age, the 20-year old to 30-year old demographic accounts for the bulk of preorders with 52 percent, followed by those aged 30-years old to 40-years old with 34 percent.
China Unicom is Apple's largest partner carrier in the country, with China Telecom coming in second. Both telecoms are readying to start sales on Dec. 14 as part of the fastest rollout in Apple's history.
Comments
Maybe that would light a fire under them.
Happy shareholder.
TIA.
Why does the title say Chinese and not "China Unicom" preorders? Isn't China Telecom also selling the device? I believe they have similar numbers of 3g customers and both are adding approximately 3 million per quarter. So the true Chinese demand could easily be 600,000 for launch day, no?
I wish... I imagine this will make AAPL drop further, I mean all the other good news does , why should this be any different?
AAPL drops again. 300,000 is ok but it is not 500,000,000,000 we were expecting. /s
I wouldn't think so. The iPhone customers are surely highly value customers than all the average of all other phones but China Mobile is about 5 million net additions per month, or 17x the number of iPhone 5 preorders stated. As of 31 Oct, 2012 they currently have 703 million subscribers. They would surely benefit from the iPhone but Apple will benefit more from China Mobile coming on than the other way around.
there are no doubts that china mobile's customers are most populous. and if apple can provide iphone on china mobile network, apple would benefit neatly. and apple should do it.
but chine mobile has its own issues. majority of its customers are on voice/IM only services. 15 millions or so iphone users on china mobile is not a healthy phenomenon at all. most of them would not use data service on china mobile network, but voice circuit service. to apple, nothing to lose. china mobile will not move forward to provide premium service to those 15 m iphone users by neglecting 685m of other users.
china mobile is too big and that is killing them. just a pure mathematics, if 50% of china mobile customers are on real 3G or 4G network for data, how much dough does china mobile have to pour out to upgrade its network? it is astronomical.
instead china unicom and china telecom are fair size of mobile service providers who have manageable customer base. so it would be easier for them to upgrade the network to the next generation. apple should partner with them tightly to push them to provide premium data/voice services over china mobile. soon, those 15 million iPhone users will have to decide whether to jump the ship. i know many now are having 2 phones: an iphone from china unicom for data and regular dummy phone for voice on china mobile.