 "iPhone 5 first weekend sales reach 5 million")
In an official statement, Apple has announced that it has sold over five million units of its iPhone 5 smartphone, three days after its launch on September 21. Apple went on to share further that over 100 million iOS devices have been updated with iOS 6. “Demand for iPhone 5 has been incredible and we are working hard to get an iPhone 5 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “While we have sold out of our initial supply, stores continue to receive iPhone 5 shipments regularly and customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date. We appreciate everyone’s patience and are working hard to build enough iPhone 5s for everyone.”
iPhone 5 is available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK, and will be available in 22 more countries on September 28, and more than 100 countries by the end of the year. Demand for iPhone 5 exceeded the initial supply and while the majority of pre-orders have been shipped to customers, many are scheduled to be shipped in October.
Five million units sold
As reported a while ago, the iPhone 5 is available across a few stores in the grey market in India. The 16GB variant of the iPhone 5 is available for Rs 76,000, while the 32GB variant of the iPhone 5 is available for Rs 85,000 and the 64GB variant is available for Rs 1,00,000.
It was recently reported that the iPhone 5 has been facing some complaints from purchasers about the number of scratches that the device seems to accumulate. A couple of posts on sites such as MacRumors indicated that most of the problems are limited to the black-coloured version of iPhone 5. “Mine arrived today with small scratches on the right out of the box. Looks like they chipped the anodised coating putting the screen in, and there is a small mark on the lower back too, by the glass section,” the Daily Mail quoted MacRumors commenter spr97ajm, as saying. “I’m not going to worry about it, but it shows the coating is soft, and will chip over time,” he added. Another forum user Sick z33 said that his black iPhone also came with a ‘‘couple of the nicks’’, the paper said. “Will use the phone till Apple decides to release something regarding the issue,” the smartphone owner concluded.
Here is a quick look at the highlighted features of the iPhone 5:
- 4-inch, 326ppi Retina display at 1136 x 640 pixels,
- GPRS, EDGE, EV-DO, HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSDPA, LTE and Wi-Fi
- GPS
- Bluetooth
- 8 megapixel camera with 1080p HD recording, 720p front-facing camera
- 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions
Made entirely out of aluminium and glass, the iPhone 5 weighs a mere 112gm and is 20 percent lighter than the iPhone 4S, and is the thinnest iPhone yet at 7.6mm thick. Apple has chosen to debut iOS 6 with the iPhone 5 and the new OS includes Apple’s own Maps app, an updated version of Siri and lots more. Overall, the new iPhone has been upgraded in almost all respects. iPhone 5 comes in either white and silver or black and slate colours.
One of the biggest changes to iOS is the addition of Apple’s own Maps app in the place of Google Maps, which Apple has done away with. The new Maps app has a built-in search for local points of interest, with over 100 million possible suggestions. Other features of the Maps app include navigation, routing, 3D maps, satellite imagery – that wraps around the 3D maps – and the ability to get directions directly through Siri. Most of the standard features of the Maps app, including satellite view, are available in almost all countries the iPhone ships to.
Siri has also been updated and new features include support for more languages, easy access to sports scores, restaurant recommendations and movie listings, Siri and Facebook-enabled apps such as Photos, Safari and Maps, and Shared Photo Streams via iCloud.
More information about the Apple iPhone 5 here.
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