Apple sells 2 million units of the Apple iPhone 5 in China over the weekend

News from Apple on Sunday night contradicted the gloom and doom on Friday that chopped more than 3% off of Apple's stock price. The shares fell victim to sellers at the end of the week amid talk of a cold reception in China to the launch of the Apple iPhone 5. But according to figures released by the Cupertino based tech giant, 2 million units of the Apple iPhone 5 were sold in China over its inaugural weekend. Apple CEO Tim Cook said that it was the best first weekend sales ever for the country and reiterated how important the market is for Apple.

Apple iPhone 5

It turns out that the shorter lines at Apple Stores in the country were by design as Apple used a new reservation system that gave a precise time for those pre-ordering the device to pick it up. This was done to prevent a repeat of the violence that occurred in January when the Apple iPhone 4S was launched in China, and a delay in opening one of the Apple Stores led to egg throwing and fighting.

Signs that the Apple iPhone 5 would outsell its predecessor came when pre-orders for the new phone amounted to 300,000 at China Unicom, up from 200,000 ordered for the Apple iPhone 4S. In addition, the Apple iPhone 5 is available for both China Unicom and China Telecom this year versus just China Unicom last year.

The Apple iPhone 5 is now available in more than 100 countries,making it the fastest rollout of an iPhone model yet. Apple did not give out sales for the other 32 countries that the phone launched in on Friday.

"Customer response to iPhone 5 in China has been incredible, setting a new record with the best first weekend sales ever in China. China is a very important market for us and customers there cannot wait to get their hands on Apple products."-Tim Cook, Apple CEO