First iPhone 5s to be available in HK stores today
Orders of the latest Apple gadget are more than double predecessor's record despite mockery
Apple's new iPhone 5 is set to whip up a buying fervour when it hits Hong Kong and eight other markets today, defying speculators' expectations and pre-launch mockery of its features.
It sold two million units in first-day preorders outside the US, more than twice the record of its predecessor, the iPhone 4S.
Parallel trader Lau Chi-kong, of G-World Mobile in Mong Kok, said: "Orders have come in from Hong Kong and mainland China, and from as far as Thailand."
Faced with possible chaotic demand, the online Apple Store and SmarTone mobile network operator said they would offer the phones today only to clients who had registered in advance.
But CSL - which runs 1010 and One2Free - and some Apple premium resellers said they would accept walk-in customers.
In the grey market, which just last week had indicated a lacklustre appetite for the gadget, Lau and other parallel traders intended to sell the 16GB version at HK$8,800, some HK$3,000 above its official price and HK$2,000 more than what some had planned to charge.