Chinese smartphone users are driving the record pre-orders of Apple’s new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, CNBC reported on Tuesday (Oct. 20), citing data from the Chinese eCommerce site Fenqile.
The latest iPhones, which are the first to offer 5G, became available for pre-order on Oct. 16. So far, there have been more than 150,000 orders of the base iPhone 12, Fenqile reported. Fenqile is also taking pre-orders for the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max, which will be available in November.
According to the data, nearly 43 percent of all iPhone pre-orders were iPhone 12, 28 percent were iPhone 12 Pro models, almost 19 percent were for the iPhone 12 Pro Max and almost 10 percent were for the iPhone 12 Mini.
Fenqile also reports that the 64GB iPhone 12 in blue accounted for 20 percent of its pre-orders. The 128GB iPhone 12 Pro pacific blue variant made up 11 percent.
Aside from offering 5G, another attraction of the line is the price point. The iPhone 12 Pro, for example, is less expensive than last year’s iPhone 11 starting price in China.
Will Wong, research manager at IDC, told CNBC that people are always looking for the best deal and that the latest iPhone models “allow consumers to get the first 5G iPhone with more acceptable prices and specs, while iPhone 12 Pro could provide the ‘pro’ experience to consumers with more affordable prices, too.”
The new data come on the heels of the Monday (Oct. 19) research note from Apple Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities. He said Apple sold some two million iPhone 12 units the first day, whereas the iPhone 11 sold just 800,000.
Apple’s fiscal 2021 started this month. Several Apple analysts are predicting a “super cycle” of iPhone sales due to the addition of 5G cellular connections.
The iPhone 12 series is powered by the new A14 Bionic chip, which uses a 5-nanometer process to reduce transistor size. The latest line also includes a new 4-core GPU, which is up to 50 percent faster than the competition. The phones don’t come with charging cords or earphones, and instead come with a Magsafe connector for cordless charging.
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