Dubai: Apple’s new iPhones got off to a brisk start from Friday midnight at major malls and outlets.
Retailers say there were more over-the-counter sales than pre-orders, and demand was more for the iPhone 6S rather than iPhone 6S Plus, and for the rose gold metallic finish.
Samer Majzoub, vice-president for premium devices at du, said that they got more than 2,000 pre-bookings for postpaid plans and some for stand-alone devices.
Du had planned to open only one of its flagship stores in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. But due to the strong pre-bookings from across the country, they opened more outlets.
“As the demand is high, we had to open 18 outlets in the UAE to cater to the demand. When it comes to postpaid plans, du performs much better than other operators,” he said.
For the first time, all the retailers in the UAE are getting the supplies directly from Apple. Usually it used to be through telco operators.
There will be no shortage of stocks as the UAE has got enough inventories from Apple to meet the demand.
The first four customers who got the devices from the du’s store also got one free iPhone 6S.
The outlets at the malls and stores were opened for around three hours.
Nadeem Khanzadah, head of omnichannel retail at Jumbo Group, said the launch was a big success. More non pre-booked customers came to buy the device as pre-booked customers usually come the next day since they are assured of the phones.
Good sales
Neelesh Bhatnagar, CEO of Emax Electronics, said that they had pre-bookings for more than 600 phones and most of the customers came to collect it on Friday at midnight.
“Even at Gitex, the sales have been good. People are coming to the Shopper anyway and people come to the event on the last day to enjoy. People will not come only to buy the phone and finally, they end up buying accessories and some other products also,” he said.
Mahesh Chotrani, assistant vice-president of Jacky’s Electronics, also said that the demand was more for rose gold 6S. So far at Gitex, the sales are extremely good.
“We are seeing massive demand for the new device, and we expect great sales for the new iPhone. The good news is that our initial allocation was very strong so we have good supply to cater to this,” said Omar Abu Shaban, general manager for Plug Ins.
Du’s Majzoub expects the demand for the new handsets to be much better than last year’s models.
An iStyle employee said that sales are expected to pick up from Saturday onwards and there are enough stocks to meet demand, and not like last year where sales were over in two days.
Some other retailers were not available for comment when contacted.
