The new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus hit stores on Friday (September 25), drawing dozens of people in Sydney despite heavy rain, kicking off a global sales cycle that will be scrutinized for signs of how much juice Apple’s marquee product has left.
Apple has a tough act to follow after the success of the iPhone 6, but sales are expected to benefit this year from the inclusion of the Chinese market, where the gadget’s debut was delayed in 2014 due to regulatory issues.
With one of Apple’s largest markets in the fold, analysts expect the company to sell about 12 million to 13 million phones in the first weekend of availability, up from more than 10 million last year.
Eager consumers from San Francisco to London to Sydney have camped out for days prior to the release, and Apple said earlier this month that based on pre-orders, sales of its new phones were on pace to beat last year’s first weekend performance.
One of the first in line outside the Sydney store was, Lucy Kelly, who used a telepresence robot owned by her marketing agency, Atomic 212 to take her place.
“My boss at work suggesting, we, I take one of the robots down and use it stand in my place so I can carry on with everyday tasks,” she told Reuters from the comfort of her living room at home.
“I love new gadgets. The new camera is meant to be amazing,” Kelly added.
“We make YouTube videos, and, you know, a big thing, you know the new iPhone, so we’re like, well why not be the first ones to get it and we travelled here,” said YouTuber, Keaton Keller, who flew in form Chicago, specifically to be one of the first to buy the iPhone.
“I’m really excited. I’m a really big fan of the iPhone and they have the strongest, they’re claiming to have the strongest screen, so that’s another reason why I’m excited,” added another YouTuber, Haron Nowabi.
Apple relies heavily on the sale of its flagship iPhones, which generated nearly two-thirds of its revenue in the latest quarter. First released in 2007, the iPhone is Apple’s best-selling device ever.
After days of waiting, Kelly and the telepresence robot were first out of the store with the new iPhone.
“Yeah, I’ll wheel it back to the Atomic offices and open it with my team, it’s a group process,” she said.
After a dramatic redesign last year in which Apple enlarged the iPhone’s screen and added mobile payments, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus boast more modest improvements.
The phones, which are the same size as last year’s models, feature improved cameras and 3D touch, a display technology that responds according to how hard users press their screens.
“I guess what I’m really hoping for with this new camera is for it to show me what it can do and I’m looking forward to doing some more night shooting. The low noise capacity of the 6s glass is incredible, so time lapse function, night time shooting.
These sort of things I want to play with now because the camera can handle it,” said Jason Van Genderen, who makes movies on smart phones.
Apple executives have said just a fraction of their customers have upgraded to the iPhone 6, suggesting they have plenty of room to grow this year. And lackluster offerings this year from rival smartphone manufacturer Samsung will help Apple’s stand out in the marketplace, analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy wrote in an email.
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, which start at $199 and $299 with a two-year contract with a mobile service provider, will be available on Friday in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
