Consumer Electronics

iPhone 12 Preorders, Apple Music TV, New Bruce Springsteen Album on Apple's Plate Monday

Paul Ausick

Published: October 19, 2020 12:47 pm

In the first 24 hours of availability for the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 11 last year, the company took orders for about 800,000 of the new mobile devices. In the first 24 hours of iPhone 12 preorders this year, the company has taken up to 2 million orders for the new phone.

The data was reported Monday morning by long-time Apple analyst Ming-chi Kuo of TF International. For the full weekend, Kuo expects Apple to sell as many as 9 million iPhone 12s. Apple stopped reporting iPhone sales totals two years ago and stopped reporting first-day sales even before then.

Strong demand from China, where the country’s 5G network is more established than in any other part of the world, accounted for the big jump in estimated sales. Kuo estimates that up to 45% of total demand for the new device came from China.

If Kuo’s estimates hold up, the consensus prediction that pent-up demand for a 5G-compatible iPhone 12 may well come true. Of the four iPhone 12 models Apple will be selling, only the basic 12 and 12 Pro are available now. The iPhone 12 mini and the iPhone 12 Pro Max don’t go on sale until next month.

In the United States, only about 1% of the population has access to the blistering download speeds that Verizon currently advertises. Analyst Gene Munster at Loup Ventures expects U.S. access to 5G to reach 25% of the population over the next 12 months.

Given that consumers have been holding on to their phones longer, Munster said that about 90 million phones are due for an upgrade and that should drive demand for the coming year.

Apple also launched its new Apple Music TV video station Monday. The new station offers a free, 24-hour-a-day stream of popular music videos and other music content. There’s not a dedicated app, but the video stream can be found under the Browse tab of either the Apple Music or Apple TV app.

Finally, Apple Music will hold an exclusive release even for the new Bruce Springsteen album, Letter to You, a day before the album’s official release. The event is available only for Apple Music+ subscribers.