Apple Announces Over Two Million iPhone 5 Pre-Orders in First Day of Sales

Following today's announcement by AT&T sharing word that the iPhone 5 has broken pre-order sales records at the carrier, Apple has issued a press release noting that it too saw record-breaking pre-orders of over two million units in the first 24 hours of availability. The performance breaks last year's record of one million iPhone 4S units pre-ordered on the first day of availability.

“iPhone 5 pre-orders have shattered the previous record held by iPhone 4S and the customer response to iPhone 5 has been phenomenal,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone 5 is the best iPhone yet, the most beautiful product we’ve ever made, and we hope customers love it as much as we do.”

iPhone 5 34Hi Stagger FrontBack Black PRINT
The iPhone 5 will be available beginning this Friday, September 21. The first pre-orders have begun shipping from China, but delivery companies will be coordinating to hold the shipments until Friday. Customers who did not pre-order the device have also begun lining up at a few Apple retail stores ahead of Friday's launch, although most of those seen so far are lining up for promotional purposes.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

iOS 26

6 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.1

Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below. Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
ios 26 1 slide to stop

iOS 26.1 Brings Back 2007 Feature in New Way

Friday October 31, 2025 1:40 pm PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a small but helpful change for iPhones, and it could prevent you from running late to something important. Specifically, when an alarm goes off in the Clock app, there is a new "slide to stop" control on the screen for turning off the alarm. On previous iOS 26 versions, there is simply a large "stop" button, which could be accidentally tapped. The new ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.1 Coming Soon: New Features for Your iPhone and Release Date

Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more. Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1. Release Date Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
M5 MacBook Pro

Waiting for New Macs? Apple Just Shared Bad News

Friday October 31, 2025 7:32 am PDT by
Apple has just given a strong indication that it will not be releasing any additional new Macs for the remainder of the year. Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh dropped the hint during the company's earnings call on Thursday:On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.Parekh essentially gave a heads up ...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

8 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
maxresdefault

Apple TV 4K Could Still Launch Before 2025 Ends: All the Rumored Features

Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors. ...
ipad mini 7 feature blue

OLED iPad Mini: Release Date, Pricing, and What to Expect

Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out. Processor and Performance Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1 Release Candidates

Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
apple tv hd

Apple Launched Its Big New Vision for TV 10 Years Ago Today

Thursday October 30, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple launched the Apple TV HD, the Siri Remote, tvOS, and their accompanying App Store a decade ago today, marking a major overhaul of the device. The new vision for the Apple TV was unveiled on September 9, 2015 during Apple's "Hey Siri" event in San Francisco, where CEO Tim Cook introduced the device with the statement, "The future of TV is apps." The announcement represented a major...

Top Rated Comments

Menopause Avatar
171 months ago
2X CPU power
2X Graphics power
2X RAM
2X sales in the first 24 hours than last year to 2 million units

Ofcourse, as you know, Apple is doomed to hell and beyond for this innovation-less minor update.
Score: 69 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NYR99 Avatar
171 months ago
...It doesn't take a genius...
Score: 55 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BreuerEditor Avatar
171 months ago
I love when people write comments like "worst iPhone ever", "what were they thinking??" and "bye iPhone, hello S3" and then I hear news like this. Makes me smile :-)
Score: 45 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GeekLawyer Avatar
171 months ago
Impressive. As always.
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)
UnSainted Avatar
171 months ago
Steve

Steve would definitely have allowed this!
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CosmoPilot Avatar
171 months ago
Few facts:
Apple is not going away!
Samsung is not going away!

Why do we constantly compare the two and spend countless hours debating which is better? I'm in the Apple camp and have made a conscious decision to this point. I'm happy for my Android loving friends...it's just not for me. Hardware/Software...which is better...who cares?

We are at a point in the smartphone world where incremental improves are the best we can expect. So it really boils down to user experience. My experience needs are different than the Android camps. I believe Apple is better positioned to improve the end users experience, but do I really care if Android users think? NO!

Not to start a flame war, but I do not lurk in the Android forums, but it seems their is a huge Android following in MRs...I wonder why?
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)