On Friday, the iPhone 5 arrived in a calm and orderly fashion in China as the world’s most populous mobile community finally gained access to Apple’s hugely popular new smartphone.
Thanks to Apple’s lottery mechanism for distributing scarce inventory, no long lines or general chaos were reported in China. But the sales results reflect the same type of feeding frenzy observed in the U.S. whenever a new Apple product is released.
On Monday, Apple confirmed that it sold 2 million iPhone 5 units in China this past launch weekend alone.
“Customer response to iPhone 5 in China has been incredible, setting a new record with the best first weekend sales ever in China,” says Apple CEO Tim Cook. “China is a very important market for us and customers there cannot wait to get their hands on Apple products.”
Independent mobile tech analyst Mike Randazzo says last weekend was a game changer for mobile in China.
“China is definitely now Apple’s market,” Randazzo says. “The landscape will be changed forever now that iPhone 5 fever has proven just as contagious across China as it is domestically.”
These huge sales inside of China don’t reflect the sales also logged in the other countries where the iPhone 5 was launched over the weekend. These nations included: Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Grenada, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.
