Apple’s new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones have just gone on sale in New Zealand (it’s September 26 there) across company-owned online and retail stores, carrier locations and authorized retailers in the 4.5 million people country.
The iPhone release in New Zealand is part of a wider roll-out Friday that will expand the handset’s availability to more than twenty new countries, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey and United Arab Emirates.
Apple has promised to make the new phones available in about 115 countries by the end of the year.
The iPhone maker isn’t saying when customers in China, one of its fastest-growing markets, can expect to buy the new handsets as it continues to work with government agencies on obtaining a regulatory approval to sell the handsets.
For what it’s worth, Samsung has now moved its planned release of the Galaxy Note 4 phablet in China and South Korea to September 26 after witnessing how popular Apple’s new handset is, Korea Times reported.
“The positive reaction from consumers to those two Apple devices prompted us to launch the Note 4 earlier than previously scheduled,” said an official at Samsung’s marketing unit.
“Samsung will be aggressive in promoting the Note 4 as it’s true that we are being challenged and pressured amid a difficult situation,” Samsung PR said in an honest statement to Korea Times.
The Note 4 is expected to ship in 140 countries by the end of October.
Samsung aims to ship fifteen million Note 4 units in the first 30 days after the product launches.
Apple said it took four-million pre-orders for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in the first 24 hours, with sales topping ten million units during the opening weekend, setting a new record for the Cupertino company.
Following a week-long period of pre-orders, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus released in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the United Kingdom this past Friday, September 19.
In spite of what could only be described as a bad week for Apple, analysts don’t think that combined bad publicity fueled by Apple’s U2 “gift”, supposed iPhone 6 bending and botched iOS 8.0.1 release will affect sales of the new phones.
High demand for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has Apple poised to sell more than 61 million smartphones in the December quarter alone, surpassing last year’s record 51 million sold, according to Barclays in Bloomberg today.
“It will do nothing, I don’t suspect it will dampen any demand,” said Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies Inc., about concerns over so-called #Bendgate and iOS 8.0.1 problems.
Indeed, there’s pent-up demand to keep the sales going into the holiday season.
Besides, the fact that the new iPhones address the need for a larger screen is resonating with former iPhone owners who have since switched to Samsung devices, causing a sudden surge in device trade-ins.
Gazelle, for instance, saw trade-ins of Samsung devices jumping threefold on a weekly basis immediately following Apple’s September 9 announcement.
A message to our international readers: if you’re going to be standing in line for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch in your country tomorrow, we’d appreciate if you emailed us some pictures at tips@idownloadblog.com.