iPhone 6 Plus sells out at Apple Store

Apple and its exclusive carriers started taking pre-orders for both new iPhone models, 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, just after midnight on Friday.

The pre-sale of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus began overnight at 12:01 a.m. Pacific, 3:01 a.m. ET at Apple Stores and its partner carrier AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.

Apple always had record breaking iPhone sales on the first day of its launch. History repeated itself as both Apple’s Online Store and AT&T experienced a record number of pre-orders.

In fact, the allotted launch day stock for 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus have sold out at the Online Apple Store, according to AppleInsider. And the Apple Online Store in U.S. has now increased the estimated shipping time for the new iPhone 6 Plus pre-orders to 3-4 weeks.

Apple was supposed to ship the iPhone 6 Plus in September. But now the shipping date for online booking of iPhone 6 Plus has shifted to October. A very huge demand of the larger iPhone 6 model might be the reason for this increase in shipping estimates. 

But the limited supply of iPhone 6 Plus could be another reason for the enhancement in shipping estimates. However, the U.S. Apple Online Store is still showing a 7 to 10 day shipping estimate for its 4.7-inch iPhone 6.

All the carriers still have few a colors and capacities of the iPhone 6 models available to ship by September 19th. But their stocks are also decreasing rapidly due to huge demand of new iPhones.

However, Apple’s first phablet-sized iPhone 6 Plus is clearly in greater demand than the smaller iPhone 6. But Apple and almost all the carriers state that the demand for both the new iPhone 6 models is very huge and the number of launch day pre-orders have set new records this year.

“Response to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has been incredible with a record number of preorders overnight,” an Apple representative told Re/code. But the company has not reported any specific number of units being sold.

“Demand for the new iPhones is higher than that seen in either of the past two years,” AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said.

And the AT&T’s Mobile & Business Solutions Group CEO Ralph de la Vega also stated that they had taken “hundreds of thousands of preorders” for the new iPhone models just a few hours after the pre-sale started. 

“It’s amazing to see the volume,” he said, adding that “the demand for the new models is topping last year’s record breaking iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c launch.”

“This is our biggest iPhone, pre-order launch day ever,” AT&T Mobility CEO Glenn Lurie said in another statement.

Meanwhile, Sprint said that the “response has been strong.” But it did not also release any numbers for pre-order sales.

T-Mobile also experienced huge demands. In fact, T-Mobile, Sprint and also the Online Apple Store topped in sales volumes Friday morning due to very huge demand. The Apple Store went offline for an hour shortly after launch. And T-Mobile CEO John Legere also apologized on Twitter for any inconveniences to customers.

Meanwhile, there will still remain a chance for all those iPhone 6 buyers who can not pre-order both devices due to sell out status or any other reason, to get an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus on the launch day (September 19th) by physically going to brick-and-mortar Apple Stores that will have limited supply on hand for walk-in buyers.

Apologies for any iPhone pre-order issues this AM. Demand has been huge but we are on it. Keep us posted if you are still having trouble.

— John Legere (@JohnLegere) September 12, 2014