Reservations for Gold and Silver Apple iPhone 5s are sold out in Beijing and Hong Kong

Unlike the U.S., where there is no pre-order period for the full-priced Apple iPhone 5s, Apple is allowing Chinese iPhone 5s buyers to reserve their unit, basically a process being done to prevent the violence that erupted when the Apple iPhone 4s launched in the country in January 2012. Under the new system, a Chinese consumer interested in the Apple iPhone 5s texts a special phone number to receive a booking code. With this code, the consumer goes online and configures the device the way he wants it. After entering in an accepted form of ID, the consumer is given a special time
when he is to show up at the nearby Apple Store to complete the purchase.

Reservations started on Tuesday and within two hours, the Gold version of the iPhone 5s was sold out in the Sanlitun, Xidan Joy City, and Wangfujing Apple Stores. The latest report says that only the 16GB Space Gray model is left for reservations in Beijing and in Hong Kong. Both the Apple iPhone 5s and Apple iPhone 5c were up for reservations starting Tuesday with in-store pick up scheduled for September 20th. The latter is the same day that both new models will be released in the U.S.

China is expected to be a big market for Apple in 2013-2014, especially if an alleged deal with China Mobile is announced. The world's largest carrier has not officially had the Apple iPhone on its roster due to the carrier's proprietary network. But that is expected to change this year and analysts expect the deal with China Mobile and one with NTT DoCoMo to lead to 35 million units in additional sales in 2014. If this all comes about, Apple's board might want to consider raising the dividend.


source: AppleInsider