Given the sheer population of China along with its market's considerable interest in Apple products as a whole, it's not too much of a shock that the launch date of the iPhone 6 in China is, once again, lagging considerably behind the UK / US roll-out. In the countries where the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is already available, Apple has enjoyed impressive early sales, but if Chinese reservation figures are anything to go on, the best may still be yet to come. Pre-orders have not yet commenced, but many retailers have started taking reservations in advance of the October 17th release, and having originally reported that 2 million iPhone 6s had been reserved in just 6 hours, the sum total for the first-day of reservations stands at a whopping 4 million.

Apple's iPhone 6, which first hit the scene two weeks ago, managed to shift ten million units in its first three days alone, and at the time, the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 accounted for the lion's share of sales. This may, at least in part, have been due to the fact that the iPhone 6 Plus wasn't as readily available, and whether down to the reported production delays or an underestimation of the larger model's popularity, the Plus's shipping times quickly pushed back to 3-4 weeks. Now, it looks like the admiration of Apple's phablet is beginning to show, with a new report suggesting that the 5.5-inch handset is accounting for three in every five iPhone 6 models being shipped at present.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus may have launched across some 30 markets over the past couple of weeks, but the grand roll-out of Apple's latest smartphone is far from complete. The company has, over the past few years, increased retail and promotional efforts in China, with the nation's three major carriers all now supported and able to offer top-level cellular speeds, and although the October 17th retail date for Chinese iPhone 6 fans amounts to a delay of one month compared with the UK, US and several others, fans of the handset remain undeterred. Apple and its carrier partners won't be taking pre-orders for at least a week, but with reservations having begun across various outlets, some 2 million devices have already been secured in just six hours.