Login to Continue Learning
Apple began taking pre-orders for its new iPhone 17 series just a couple of hours ago, with China being one of the company’s preferred regions due to strong annual sales. Despite earlier this year having to offer discounts on the iPhone 16 series to boost sales in the region, Apple is now experiencing high demand from Chinese customers. The official online store crashed, and several models were out of stock.
According to Yicai Tech, a significant surge in demand for the iPhone 17 was reported. A tipster @Jukanlosreve on Twitter noted that as of yesterday, one online retailer had recorded over 5 million reservations for the new model. Now, even the base variant has surpassed 3.7 million reservations on JD.com, China’s largest retailer by revenue and ranked 47th on Fortune’s Global 500 list. This level of demand is rare; Apple’s official online store rarely crashes due to overwhelming traffic.
The high demand suggests that Apple might already be informing its main assembler, Foxconn, to increase production to meet the strong reception. One reason for the base iPhone 17’s popularity in China is that it now features LTPO OLED technology across all four models. This means even the most affordable version (starting at $799 in the U.S.) offers a high refresh rate panel with up to 120Hz, which can be reduced to 1Hz for battery conservation.
Additionally, Apple has equipped the iPhone 17 with the new A19 chip, manufactured on TSMC’s 3nm ‘N3P’ process. This brings slight performance and efficiency improvements over previous chips like the A18 and A18 Pro. Reports suggest that Apple is estimated to ship 100 million iPhone 17 units this year. The high demand for the base model might necessitate some production adjustments.
