iPhone 5 China sales top 2 million

Apple today announcement that it had sold over 2 million iPhone 5s in China, a record for the company, following launch on Friday that according to observers had been low-key.

Chief executive Tim Cook said in a statement that the sales allotted by online lottery to foil the designs of gangs who bought and then resold the handsets, had been "the best first weekend sales ever in China."

The Guardian newspaper quoted other sources, including Shanghai Daily, as saying that even if Apple's own stores were comparatively quiet, its carrier partners selling the iPhone 5 had had a busy weekend with people signing up to buy the handsets with contracts through China Unicom and China Telecom.

China is the world's largest smartphone market, its fast track growth is dominated by cheap devices built on Google's Android software. The lack of Apple's contract with, the country's largest mobile operator China Mobile which boasts 700 million customers, is seen to have considerably hampered its sales.

The iPhone 5, launched in the US and 30 other countries in September, would be on sale in over than 100 countries worldwide by the end of December – the company's fastest rollout ever.

"Customer response to iPhone 5 in China has been incredible," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. "China is a very important market for us and customers there cannot wait to get their hands on Apple products."
 
The news comes as a turnaround for Apple, which saw its stock drop 4 per cent in early trading on Friday, to $509 a share as concerns mounted over low demand for the iPhone 5 in China. According to The Wall Street Journal local response to the  smartphone was low key as against earlier years.

"Apple's flagship store in Beijing's upscale Sanlitun shopping district began selling the iPhone 5 for the first time on Friday in what was arguably the least eventful launch of an Apple device in the company's four-year history in the Chinese capital, " it said.

Three days following the iPhone 5's initial launch on 21 September, the company announced sales had topped 5 million units. The device was then available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK.