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19 March 2024

iPhone 5 renews Apple’s karma: Pre-orders top 2 million in 24 hours

Published
By Vicky Kapur

The iPhone 5 has “shattered” all sales records as Apple’s latest device raked in 2 million pre-orders in the first 24 hours of sales being thrown open for eager fans, the Cupertino-based company has said.

Orders for the iPhone 5 new opened at midnight on Friday, Silicon Valley time. After a weekend of counting the cash, Apple yesterday announced that pre-orders of its new device topped two million in just 24 hours, more than double the previous record of one million held by iPhone 4S.

“iPhone 5 pre-orders have shattered the previous record held by iPhone 4S and the customer response to iPhone 5 has been phenomenal,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

“iPhone 5 is the best iPhone yet, the most beautiful product we’ve ever made, and we hope customers love it as much as we do,” he said in the media statement issued by Apple.

Demand for iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply and while the majority of pre-orders will be delivered to customers on September 21, many are scheduled to be delivered in October, the firm added.

The new smartphone will be available at 356 Apple retail stores in the US beginning at 8am local time on Friday, September 21, the company announced.

It may not seem much to us pampered souls in Dubai, but the company will be offering free sops in the shape of ‘personal setup service’ and free ‘customisation’ of their iPhone 5. We take such ‘services’ for granted here in the UAE, but apparently Apple thinks of it as a good way to thank its millions of fans.

“Every customer who buys an iPhone 5 at an Apple retail store will be offered free Personal Setup service, helping them customise their iPhone 5 by setting up email, showing them new apps from the App Store and more, so they’ll be up and running with their new iPhone before they leave the store,” the media statement proclaimed.

The iPhone 5, which comes in two colours – either white and silver or black and slate – will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model and $399 for the 64GB model.

With the launch of the iPhone 5, prices of iPhone 4S have declined.

In the US, the older version is now available for just $99 and iPhone 4 – an even older version – is available for free with a two-year contract.

The iPhone 5 will roll out worldwide to 22 more countries on September 28, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Still no UAE – eh?

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