Apple’s big-screen gamble with its latest iPhone devices appears to be paying off, with record weekend sales proving its fans aren’t put off by larger devices.
The company said Monday that its first weekend sales topped 10 million devices. It didn’t break out sales between the two models, though the iPhone 6 Plus seemed to be a much harder device to find over the last three days.
“Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement.
This year’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are most notable for their scaled-up screen sizes of 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches, respectively, giving Apple fans the option of larger handsets already commonplace among Android phones.
The iPhone is Apple’s most important device and its biggest moneymaker, accounting for more than half of sales.
Millions of customers continue to purchase its older devices, but Apple has been challenged by a trend toward bigger-screen smartphones from Samsung, HTC and others.
Introducing larger screens with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will help it please current customers and possibly tempt some buyers away from its competitors.
The devices went on sale Friday in 10 countries, starting at $199 for the iPhone 6 with 16GB of storage space and going up to $499 for the 6 Plus with 128GB of memory. The smartphones will go on sale in 20 more countries starting Sept. 26.
Apple last week said customers preordered more than 4 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 devices in the first 24 hours after advance sales began. By comparison,
Apple two years ago received over 2 million preorders for the iPhone 5 within 24 hours, and first weekend sales totaled more than 5 million. Last year, the first time Apple offered two iPhone models, the company said it sold 9 million units of the iPhone 5S and 5C devices in the first weekend after they hit stores.
