Despite Apple’s brand-new iPhone 11 largely attracting crowds in the company’s flagship re-Stores around the world, in China, the new range that hit the market on Friday drew only die-hard fans, CNA reported, adding that with the previous models, hundreds were queuing outside Apple’s stores to be the first to grab the newest offering.
However, as it turns out, most of the hullabaloo had apparently moved from offline stores to online ones, where pre-sales of Apple’s latest model 11, priced between $699 and $1,099, kicked off last week.
Market analysts remarked that Apple had enjoyed a much better start to iPhone sales this time than it had with the last line-up a year ago. For instance, according to Chinese e-commerce site JD.com, day one pre-sales for the iPhone 11 were up 480% as compared to the respective sales for the iPhone XR in 2018.
Whatever the online demand, with CNA citing users hailing the new iPhone’s triple camera, many found it inconvenient that Apple hadn’t yet enabled its all the rage smartphones for fifth-generation networks, resulting in them lagging behind 5G models now released by China's Huawei Technologies and the lesser rival Vivo.
iPhone 11 hit Chinese stores a day after the local smartphone maker Huawei unveiled its new gadgets, reportedly more compact in size than their Apple rivals, with more sensitive cameras and exceptionally vivid wraparound screens that surpass those of the latest iPhone models.
The rivalry between Apple and Huawei has become stiffer over the past few months after Trump issued a decree blacklisting the Chinese smartphone manufacturer and ripping it out of the US market over its alleged ties with the Chinese government and special services - something that both Huawei and Beijing have vehemently denied.
