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.