Apple break sales records in China with iPhone 5

Apple have stunned analysts worldwide by announcing that they have sold more than 2 million iPhone 5 smartphones in China, a new record for the company.

Tim Cook, Apple CEO has said that the sales has been ‘the best first weekend sales ever in China'. His statement can be read here.

The Chinese people were signed up to buy the phones with contracts through China Unicom and Chine Telecom. Ahead of the launch China Unicom had 300,000 preorders, breaking the previous record of 200,000 for the iPhone 4S in January.

Apple handled this launch differently, after the problems with the iPhone 4S launch in January which was tainted by near riots. They forced an online lottery system for the iPhone 5 launch which meant that people could come to the stores at any time to pick up a handset, if they were allocated one in the scheme.

China is the world's largest smartphone market, and is growing fast, thanks to cheap devices based around the Google Android operating system.

The iPhone 5 has enjoyed great success so far, and will be on sale in more than 100 countries by the end of December.

Kitguru says: the online lottery system seemed to calm the launch down and has been seen as a  good move by Apple.

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