"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 VP of worldwide marketing, in a statement issued Monday. "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."
Two million people placed orders for the iPhone 5 in the first 24 hours it was available from Apple's website. Apple didn't say how many iPhones have been preordered in total so far.
AT&T, too, said that it set a sales record over the weekend for new iPhones, though it declined to provide any hard sales figures for its share of the iPhone 5 pie.
The iPhone 5 is "the fastest-selling iPhone the company has ever offered. Customers ordered more iPhones from AT&T than any previous model, both on its first day of preorders and over the weekend," said AT&T.
[ Not buying into the hype? See 5 Alternatives To The Apple iPhone 5. ]
AT&T said that customers looking for the iPhone 5 can still purchase one from its website, but shipping times have slipped to "14 to 21 days." AT&T reminds people that if they'd prefer to pick an iPhone up in person, its stores will open at 8 a.m. Friday morning.
Preorders for the iPhone 5 kicked off at 3 a.m. Eastern time Friday, September 14. Heavy initial demand for the device from Apple.com sapped its launch stock of the phone. As with AT&T's site, Apple.com now shows that consumers preordering the phone today won't receive it for "2 to 3 weeks."
Apple said that interest in the iPhone 5 has been staggering. "Preorders for iPhone 5 have been incredible," said Apple spokeswoman Nat Kerris to AllThingsD. "We've been completely blown away by the customer response."
Sprint and Verizon Wireless have yet to make any statements regarding preorders for the iPhone 5, though both carriers are offering the device, as well.
The iPhone 5 has a larger 4-inch Retina Display, A6 processor, LTE 4G (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon), an improved 8-megapixel camera and user-facing camera, wideband audio, better noise cancellation, and 8 hours of LTE Web surfing. Pricing for the iPhone 5 ranges from $199 to $399, depending on storage capacity.
It will be available in stores beginning September 21.
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