Demand for Apple’s iPhone 4 has been greater than expected in China, where the newest iteration of the smartphone recently launched. China Unicom has reported that it lodged over 200,000 pre-orders for the device, and that the first day of availability saw 40,000 consumers purchase the iPhone with a bundled mobile service plan.
These figures represent a substantial rise over Unicom’s launch last year of the earlier iPhone generation – it took 6 weeks for the previous model to reach 100,000 sales. Although it has not disclosed exact figures, Unicom has confirmed that demand is outstripping supply for the iPhone 4, with Apple stating that they will supply more devices soon.
With the previous iPhone launching in China in October 2009, it is evident that Apple is closing the gap between the western product launches and their Chinese counterparts – the iPhone 4 makes its Chinese debut just 3 months after the new smartphone launched in the US. This fact, coupled with the increasing number of branded retail stores that Apple is opening across China, has been suggested by China Unicom as a driving force behind sales.
Analysys has reported that Apple is the fifth-largest smartphone vendor in China, with a total market share of 7.1%.
