Pictures: iPhone 13, iPad mini go on sale worldwide

iPhone 13, iPad mini and iPad 9 hit stores in China

Apple has published a collection of images showing what happened in Beijing, China as its new iPhone 13 series devices, iPad mini and new iPad began arriving in retail stores worldwide.

Now available in stores

Most Apple retail stores are open in most nations, and while we all quite rightly remain wary to avoid crowds where possible during COVID-19, there are a lot more shoppers not wearing masks this iPhone upgrade season.

As far as we can tell from various analysis, demand appears to be up 20% on last year, with 5G, camera improvements, a much faster processor, and decent seeming carrier deals prompting plenty of purchase.

In a client note received earlier this week, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said:

“While it’s still very early days, the combination of long early iPhone 13 lead times and 2H CY21 iPhone builds that are up 20% Y/Y (with new model builds of 87M units, the strongest since 2H CY17) show the iPhone 13 is off to a promising start.”

Big in China

Chinese state media currently estimates 5 million pre-orders were made on when pre-orders began, with this activity almost toppling Apple China’s website, which slowed to a crawl.

Webush analyst Dan Ives says:

“Based on gauging pre-order activity across the globe to its predecessor iPhone 12 we believe iPhone 13 pre-orders are currently running north of 20% ahead of Apple’s launch last year, an impressive start for this latest upgrade cycle out of Cupertino.

“China has been leading the way with preorders that could approach the 5 million/6 million mark based on data coming out of China e-commerce sites including JD.com.”

Iphone 13 queue 👀 pic.twitter.com/BJtVbgzIiu

— Nana Yaw Boakye (@NanaYawBoakyeTG) September 24, 2021

The above shows the iPhone 13 queue at Apple Store in Brooklyn New York. While the pandemic has certainly driven many to shop online, the fact queues like these formed worldwide show us why Apple continues to gain hearts and minds.

Big everywhere else as well

The iPhone may rapidly be approaching 50% of the market of UK smartphone users and 60% of all U.S. smartphone users, according to fresh information from Piplsay as picked up by Asymco’s Horace Dediu.

About the only news to mar the occasion is that of a small Apple Music bug that impacts all iPhone 13 devices if you restore your new iPhone or iPad from backup. Apple has already released a smaller update to correct this problem.

Up next?

All eyes now on Apple’s Foundation series (is it a hit? Is it a miss?) as we wait for a potential MacBook Pro M1X launch in October.

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