iPhone 6 record demand: Will it make it to UAE on September 26?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) today announced the reason behind its online stores going down last Friday. And that was record demand, especially in the bigger-sized iPhone 6 Plus, which in any case is facing delivery issues.

The Cupertino-based technology titan said in a statement today that it received “a record number of first day pre-orders of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus”, with orders topping four million in the first 24 hours.

“Demand for the new iPhones exceeds the initial pre-order supply and while a significant amount will be delivered to customers beginning on Friday [September 19] and throughout September, many iPhone pre-orders are scheduled to be delivered in October,” the company said.

This raises questions about the device’s first-day delivery in the UAE, which is among 20 countries where Apple’s new smartphone spearheads are scheduled to be available beginning on Friday, September 26.

The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus were unveiled by Apple on September 9, and will be available starting Dh2,599 and Dh2,999, respectively.

Read: #AppleLive: iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Watch

This Friday (September 19) will see the smartphones made physically available in Apple’s home market of the US along with another nine markets - Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK.

“Additional supply of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be available to walk-in customers on Friday, September 19 at 8am local time at Apple retail stores,” the company said in the statement.

The following Friday (September 26) is expected to see the devices hit the shores of another 20 countries, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

While the UAE Apple Store is scheduled to open for orders on September 26, UAE telecom operator Etisalat will be opening up online pre-orders from September 19 onwards.

“iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are better in every way, and we are thrilled customers love them as much as we do,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Pre-orders for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus set a new record for Apple, and we can’t wait to get our best iPhones yet into the hands of customers starting this Friday.”

The demand is indeed high, and Apple has reportedly asked Foxconn and its other manufacturing partners to produce about 70 to 80 million units of the new devices before the end of this year.

That number is about 30 to 40 per cent more than it ordered for its initial run of last year’s iPhone 5s and 5c models.

Both the new iPhone 6 models come in gold, silver or space gray colours, and are available in 16GB, 64GB and, for the first time, a new 128GB model.

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