The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus’ release date weekend has come and gone, and just as Apple had hoped and number-crunchers had expected, both devices sold a record-setting total of 10 million units in their first weekend. This broke last year’s record of 9 million in the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c’s first weekend in stores.
Apple CEO Tim Cook was ebullient as he confirmed the sales record earlier today in a statement. “Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier,” read Cook’s prepared remarks. “We would like to thank all of our customers for making this our best launch ever, shattering all previous sell-through records by a large margin. While our team managed the manufacturing ramp better than ever before, we could have sold many more iPhones with greater supply and we are working hard to fill orders as quickly as possible.”
On September 19, both iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus hit stores in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Puerto Rico, and the devices will be released in 20 other markets this Friday, September 26, right before the end of Apple’s current fiscal quarter. The devices should be available in 115 markets by the end of the year.
Though both iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are expected to drive a strong finish for the current September quarter (third calendar quarter of 2014), market analysts expect bigger things out of both devices in the upcoming fourth calendar quarter. For Q4 2014, some analysts have pegged iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales to reach a combined 60 million or more; Apple does not break down individual sales per iPhone model.