Despite having to fight against a new iPhone each year, Samsung was surprised to see Apple’s record iPhone 6 launch in past weeks and had to move up its Galaxy Note 4 launch in South Korea and China as a result. But that might not be enough to keep customers from buying the iPhone 6 like hot cakes, especially in China, where a recent estimate revealed that more than 2 million people reserved a new iPhone in the first six hours following Apple’s official iPhone 6 announcement from the region.
FROM EARLIER: Is the iPhone 6 Plus even hotter than we thought?
Now, a second report from the region says that iPhone 6 reservations have now topped 4 million units, even though the official iPhone 6 preorder date isn’t until October 10th.
Chinese online publication Tencent says that some 4 million customers have already reserved their iPhone 6 handsets with local mobile operators and other retailers. The publication even offers specific numbers for a particular retailer, which said that 1,106,379 people reserved the iPhone 6, and 1,189,083 went for the bigger iPhone 6 Plus model, suggesting the phablet version is slightly more popular than the 4.7-inch version.
Interestingly, a questionable report from Digitimes suggested that Apple might have ordered more iPhone 6 Plus units than iPhone 6 models from its suppliers.
While it’s not clear whether all these reservations will convert to actual purchases, the number is not that surprising. Apple announced it sold 10 million combined iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units during the first weekend, with China left out of the first iPhone 6 wave. Comparatively, in 2013 Apple sold 9 million iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units, during launch, with 2.75 million of them being sold in China.
Meanwhile, Samsung has sold out its initial Galaxy Note 4 stock in South Korea, although reports suggested it might have had just 30,000 units on hand, and numbers for China haven’t been mentioned. Samsung will start selling the phone in other markets on October 10th (when actual iPhone 6 preorders start in China), with the U.S. getting it on October 17th (when the iPhone 6 launches in China).
