iPhone 6 pre-orders set unprecedented records

iPhone 6 seamless screen

Coming soon after pre-orders for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus went live last night, both Apple and AT&T reported that the respective companies were seeing record pre-orders, with demand for the larger iPhone 6 surpassing that of both the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5.

Apple, despite its late start, saw record pre-orders last night alone, issuing a statement saying, “Response to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has been incredible with a record number of preorders overnight.” Although Apple didn’t specify exactly how many units were sold, we can assume it surpassed iPhone 5 sales of 2 million in 24 hours when Apple last had pre-orders two years ago.

AT&T reported “hundreds of thousands” of pre-orders for the iPhone 6 in just a few hours, breaking records for initial sales of iPhones over the past two years. Early orders of Apple’s latest smartphone will likely continue to climb over the weekend and throughout next week, as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus won’t officially be available until September 19.

These record sales seem to confirm Apple’s decision to develop a larger-sized iPhone, as the company was previously inclined to stick with its smaller 3.5-inch and 4-inch models. Estimated shipping times have slipped to 3-4 weeks for all configurations of the iPhone 6 Plus, indicating that either Apple has fewer of these units available, or the demand for them is considerably higher. The iPhone 6 is still shipping this Friday for Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint, but shipping times for the T-Mobile version are estimated at 7-10 days.

[Fierce Wireless, Re/code]