Apple iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus preorders top 4M in first 24 hours

Apple said Monday it hit a record in first-day preorders of its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, with over four million preorders in the first 24 hours.

By comparison, Apple two years ago received over two million preorders for the iPhone 5 within 24 hours, and first weekend sales totaled more than 5 million. Last year, the first time Apple offered two iPhones, the company said it sold 9 million units of the iPhone 5S and 5C models in the first weekend after they hit stores.

The iPhone 6 has the potential to be the biggest launch in Apple's 38-year history, with the latest design providing two larger-screen models, slimmer and lighter bodies and a new mobile-payment system. Apple reportedly has asked manufacturing partners to produce about 70 million to 80 million units of its larger screen iPhones by December 30, which is about 30 percent to 40 percent more iPhones than it ordered for its initial run of last year's iPhone 5S and 5C.

"IPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are better in every way, and we are thrilled customers love them as much as we do," Apple CEO Tim Cook, who unveiled the new smartphones last week, said in a statement Monday.

The company also confirmed that demand for the new smartphones outpaced initial preorder supplies. It said "a significant amount" of the devices will be delivered to preorder customers beginning this Friday and throughout September. However, many iPhone preorders aren't scheduled to arrive to customers until October. Apple, as well as several wireless carriers, have shown on their websites a longer wait in delivery time for the larger-screen iPhone 6 Plus.
Additional supplies of the smartphones will be available to walk-in customers on Friday, starting at 8 a.m. local time at Apple retail stores, when the devices officially go on sale. With long lines expected at Apple stores, the company encouraged customers to arrive early, or order online and then pick up their devices in stores or receive an estimate delivery date.

The record for the first 24 hours comes on the heels of Apple saying last Friday it hit a record number of customer orders overnight when presales started that day. These records follow with a trend of new Apple devices selling out quickly.

The iPhone 5 from 2012 -- available for preorder on September 14 of that year and in stores September 24 -- sold out of launch-day stock at a then record pace. About an hour after preorders started, Apple's online store changed the shipment timing from one week -- coinciding with the official launch date -- to as long as three weeks.



Apple received over two million preorders for the iPhone 5 within 24 hours. By comparison, it took about 22 hours for iPhone 4S preorders to sell out online after it went on sale October 14, 2011, and about 20 hours for the iPhone 4, released June 24, 2010, to go out of stock.

Last year marked the first time Apple released two phones at the same time, the pricier iPhone 5S with the TouchID fingerprint sensor and the colorful and cheaper iPhone 5C. Apple didn't make the iPhone 5S available for preorder because of supply issues, but it did allow customers to reserve the 5C on September 13.

Apple didn't release preorder figures for the 5C as it had done for every iPhone since 2009's introduction of the iPhone 3GS. That was likely because the 5C's initial uptake wasn't very strong, as Apple CEO Tim Cook later acknowledged during an earnings report in January.

The 5C also didn't sell out during preorders, with the device still available in many places after preorders first started. But less than two days after the September 20 launch, it already was tough to find an iPhone 5S. Many customers waited as long as a month for the new device.

Demand for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus was so high when preorders began last Friday that Apple's online store and various carriers couldn't keep up. Outages plagued the Apple Store site for more than two hours after the iPhones became available for presale at midnight PT. Despite the outages, customers scooped up the devices at a rapid clip. As of 7 p.m. PT Sunday, the iPhone 6 models generally were available to ship in seven to 10 business days, according to the Apple Store online. The iPhone 6 Plus wouldn't be available to ship for three to four weeks.

Preorders through Verizon Wireless and AT&T largely started without a hitch at midnight Friday, though some customers on Twitter complained about issues. Those problems were nothing compared with the issues experienced by Sprint and T-Mobile customers. The Sprint and T-Mobile sites were still down for many users nearly two hours after presales were slated to start. Access to Sprint's site faded in and out, while the T-Mobile site continued to display a form to register for a reminder for when the preorders began.

Apple iPhone 6, 6 Plus camera: What's new

IPHONE 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have been announced, and with the all NEW IPHONEannouncements, there are new camera goodies, too. The iSight cameras on both models remain 8MP shooters, same resolution as previous iPhone models (4, 4S, 5 and 5S), but with great new features.

We all know that the use and sales of point-and-shoot cameras and digital camcorders has gone down dramatically since the iPhone has come onto the scene, and for good reason. Now, the iPhone's camera, or iSight camera, is better than ever.

First, we'll start with the stuff that really matters in photography: Collecting light, making sure photos are in focus and that we capture the right moments.

When it comes to collecting light, Apple makes no mention of changes in its lens structure or number of elements, so we're assuming it's the same as the iPhone 5S and IPHONE 5. Pixel size is 1.5 microns, same as that of iPhone 5S, and the aperture opening is a fixed f/2.2, again same as that of iPhone 5S.

Additionally, True Tone flash remains, which is great. It's a dual-colour or dual-temperature flash that has each colour firing at varying intensities based on the scene to make sure colours and skin tone stay true. This is a feature that no other smartphone really offers right now.

iPhone 6: Focus Pixels


Apple introduced a new feature called Focus Pixels, which is just its fancy way of saying that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus both have phase detection autofocus. Having phase detection AF is excellent, and slightly faster than contrast detection AF.

The iSight's camera has pixels paired for phase detection autofocus, basically like using an old range-finder camera or SLR, where you look through the viewfinder and try to align the two images that are slightly blurred.

As the lens or module in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus move forward and back, these phase detection pixels on the sensor will determine when your subject is in focus and stop the movement. Then you'll be ready to take the photo.

Apple says that this makes autofocus faster than ever on the iPhone, and we can't wait to test it out against the iPhone 5S to see if it's a tangible and noticeable difference.

iPhone 6: Image quality


Apple doesn't go into detail about some of the new features that it mentioned, but I can give it my best shot. The first is tone mapping, which Apple says is improved in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus iSight cameras.

Basically, tone mapping is image processing, and when Apple says it's improved in the new iSight camera, I'm guessing what it means is that colour and detail rendition, especially in highlights and shadows, are better preserved and represented.

We all know that the photos we take can look a little flat, or just plain wrong in terms of highlight and shadow detail and exposure. Apple is probably taking steps to improve this so you have to do less work in post-processing photos.

The next item touched on is noise reduction. Now, there are two types of noise in photos: luminance and colour noise. Luminance noise tends to happen in lowlight situations, or in shadow areas of your photos. You'll see pixels that are bright and speckled, which makes the darker photos or shadow areas look muddled.

Colour noise can do the same thing to colors, making them look less smooth. You're not getting an accurate representation of what you've actually photographed.

The trouble with noise reduction, especially in smartphone cameras with tiny sensors and puny lenses, is that images tend to become smudged as image processing software reduces noise. Apple says that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus cameras will retain sharpness while applying noise reduction. This is a common technique, but images start to look fake when either process is strengthened.

When it comes to noise reduction, I'd like to see large versions of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus photos to see just how good, or bad, the photos really are.

Video capture received some major improvements in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The iSight camera still records at 1080p video, but in addition to 1080p at 30fps, you'll be able to record Full HD video at 60fps, too. That ought to make smoother looking videos, with the downside of probably larger file sizes.

Slo-mo video on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus has also been improved. When it was included in the iPhone 5S, Slo-mo video at 120fps was a neat feature that had pretty limited use cases. I'd imagine it's going to be the same with THE NEW IPHONES, although at 240fps, you can probably give fast-moving objects and people a cooler effect. You'll also be able to record 240fps at 720p, so you won't be sacrificing much quality at all.

Apple also calls the new image stabilization feature in the iSight camera "Cinematic video stabilization." Image stabilization, whether digital or optical, isn't new to smartphone camera technology, either. However, with other phones, it can give mixed and varied results. We're curious to try this out with varying intensities to see just how well it works.

IPHONE 6 and 6 Plus: Image stabilization


There is a big difference between the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus when it comes to the way image stabilization works. For the iPhone 6, there is digital image stabilization. This means that it's likely that software is doing a good chunk of the work in keeping your image sharp even if there is slight movement in the camera.

The iPhone 6 Plus, however, gets the better end of the deal with OIS, or optical image stabilization. With OIS, the lenses, or elements, or camera module — or a combination of any of those three — will move to counteract the motion of the phone itself. This is, historically, far better than digital image stabilization.

Again, these features will be interesting to test against each other. Right now, we're guessing that the iPhone 6 Plus with OIS will buy you more light and forgiveness to motion and camera jerkiness.

iLove the iSight camera


Most smartphone photographers agree that the iPhone has had the best all-around camera amongst all other smartphones. In some cases it performs even better than point-and-shoot and compact cameras. All the while, Apple continues to work to improve the iSight camera on the iPhone, and it's great.

Apple has always tried to take most of the guesswork away from having to shoot photos. The iSight cameras on the iPhone have always done a pretty good job at nailing exposure and reducing motion blur, along with taking decent photos in low light.

With the addition of filters and video features over time, the iPhone's camera has become more versatile than ever. I'd imagine that the new iSight camera features on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, coupled with the new features in iOS 8, will take Apple's philosophy on making a solid smartphone camera even further.

If you love photography, especially smartphone photography, these upgrades are enough reason to get excited about the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.