Three days after offering the device for preorder, Apple has announced that its new lighter, thinner smartphone has sold 2 million units in its first weekend, doubling that of the iPhone 4S and making it the fastest selling device in the company’s history.
To add some perspective, that’s 1389 iPhones sold per minute and 23 purchases every second.
Apple is quick to state that demand has exceeded supply in terms of initial preorders, alerting customers that while early orders will still ship on September 21, many are due to reach doorsteps in October.
Last Friday, it only took an hour for Apple’s website to reflect shipping delays, with delivery estimates slipping to between ’2-3 weeks’ in all of the seven launch countries.
“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 SVP 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.”
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In comparison, the iPhone 4S sold one million units in its first 24 hours, which was a record in its own right. However, with AT&T announcing earlier today that it had already surpassed preorder totals for the iPhone 4S — making it the biggest iPhone launch ever — it was only a matter of time until Apple announced a record of its own.
Last year, Apple later followed up its one million iPhone 4S sales with news that it had topped the 4 million mark over its first weekend. All eyes are on Apple to see if it will release more figures in the coming days.
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