Official pre-orders for the iPhone 6 finally went live in China early Friday morning, with
more than a million orders being taken in the first six hours of availability. The new pre-orders would be different from the more than
nine million "reservations" taken by other carriers and resellers, meaning that opening weekend sales -- which are scheduled to open in China on October 17 -- could easily surpass the combined first-weekend sales of the nine countries the iPhone 6 line debuted to in September.
The numbers of pre-orders, reported by Tencent, may not include pre-orders made through the official online China Apple Store, which could push the figures even higher. Reports have said that China Mobile alone -- the largest of the three Chinese carriers, and the world's largest provider by subscriber base -- will be receiving some
6.5 million iPhone 6 models, roughly half the entire shipment bound for the country for the retail launch.
China continues to report that buyers are evenly split between the two new models, with the larger, 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus taking only a very slight edge over the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, with roughly a 51-49 split among early buyers.
AppleInsider notes that at launch, there will be more than 6,700 resellers available to sell the latest iPhones across the country and related territories.
Apple has said that it plans to have the iPhone 6 available in some 115 countries by the end of the year. Analysts are estimating worldwide sales of between 50 million and 60 million in the current quarter, though sales from late arrivals China and India could play a significant role in the total for the year.
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