If record pre-orders are any indication, expect some huge lines when the iPhone5 hits stores Friday.
Apple Inc. obliterated its single-day sales record for iPhone pre-sales, announcing that it took orders for more than 2 million iPhone 5s last Friday. That was more than double its previous mark of 1 million iPhones ordered the first day of pre-sales in October for the iPhone 4S.
The massive iPhone 5 numbers pushed Apple’s stock past $700 a share for the first time in after-hours trading Monday. The shares closed at $699.78, up $8.50, or 1.2%. The world’s most valuable company is now worth nearly $656 billion — about six times its value in June 2007, when it released the first iPhone.
And with shoppers already beginning to line up at an Apple retail store in New York City, the device’s official release Friday could break even more records.
“The customer response to iPhone 5 has been phenomenal,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing.
The Cupertino, Calif., company said demand for the phone quickly exceeded the initial supply, so although the majority of pre-orders will be delivered Friday, many will be delayed for shipment until October.
The demand was so overwhelming that it intermittently crashed Apple’s website and sites of retail partners in the first few hours after the phone became available for pre-sale. In just one hour, Apple.com sold out its release-day stock. AT&T and Verizon also announced their own shipping delays.
Read more: LA Times
