Apple to Offer iPhone 5S Pre-Orders in China Starting September 17

Much has been said about Apple’s decision not to offer pre-orders for their new iPhone 5S, despite the fact that pre-orders have already begun for its less expensive and colorful iPhone 5C counterpart. Speculation has suggested numerous possibilities, such as Apple simply trying to force customers into retail stores, insufficient iPhone 5S stock for launch, and so forth. What you might now realize, however, is that Apple customers in Asia don’t have to deal with that restriction!

@MacTrast HK Apple store allows preorder of 5s as of 9/17 for store pickup on 9/20.

— Phillip Forsyth (@Phillip_In_HK) September 13, 2013

As pointed out by MacTrast reader Phillip Forsyth on Twitter, Apple is in fact offering pre-orders for the both the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C in Hong Kong – they even officially state this in the iPhone section of the Hong Kong Apple Retail Website:

We’ve found that this is also true for the China region in general. However, in checking the details on Apple’s retail site for other countries and regions, no such offer could be found anywhere. For some reason, it appears that the iPhone 5S early “Reservations” or pre-orders are limited only to China. It’s unclear whether or not Apple may be planning something similar for the U.S., Europe, Canada, the U.K., and the remaining regions that the iPhone 5S and 5C will launch in next Friday.

It’s not clear why such an offer would extend only to Asian customers – the only reason I can fathom for this are that it’s an added effort to reach out to new customers throughout China, or has something to do with Asia being closer to the manufacturing base for the majority of manufactured iPhones. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.

J. Glenn Künzler

Glenn is Managing Editor at MacTrast, and has been using a Mac since he bought his first MacBook Pro in 2006. Now he's up to his neck in Apple, and owns an old iBook, a 2012 iMac with an extra Thunderbolt display for good measure, a 4th-generation iPad, an iPad mini, 2 iPhones, and a Mac Mini that lives at the neighbor's house. He lives in a small town in Utah, enjoys bacon more than you can possibly imagine, and is severely addicted to pie.

gonzofish

It’s official, Apple is a Communist.
bahram

It is because Apple wants to alleviate the rush of lots of people outside its stores, which last time ended up with cancellation of sells there.
Jim

Americans get to wait in long lines for hours, like Welfare Recipients, begging for free cheese while a country with billions of possible buyers eats up the already manufactured stock!!! Leaving Apple with a limited supply and their American customers month long wait times… Sounds pretty fair to me…. NOT!!!
haruhiko

So that Apple Stores in Hong Kong and China will only accept reserved customers on the launch day, to deter scalpers. It will most likely be a “lucky draw” mechanism – submit the order first, and Apple will tell you whether you can come to the Apple Store and pick up your phone later – not to mention that the time slot is assigned by Apple – good luck if you work from 9 to 5.