Apple hasn’t announced the iPhone 6 yet, but that isn’t stopping the world’s largest carrier from opening up preorders.
In Beijing, China Mobile has begun accepting preorders for the unreleased smartphone in both 4.7 and 5.5-inch sizes.
“The program is available only in Beijing and, as of Tuesday evening, had attracted more than 33,000 orders,” reports China Daily. “It remains unclear when the buyers can get the device. A person familiar with the matter told China Daily the first iPhone 6 could be distributed to Chinese customers as early as mid-month.”
A mid-September launch makes sense given what other carriers have been saying around the world. While China Mobile is technically taking preorders, it doesn’t have any official product imagery to market the iPhone 6. Reports have suggested that the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 won’t ship alongside the 4.7-inch model at launch, which makes China Mobile’s inclusion of both curious.
British carrier O2 recently ran a newspaper ad cleverly marketing Apple’s upcoming release, although it obviously didn’t provide any real details either.
Cheeky iPhone 6 advert from @o2 in the newspaper today pic.twitter.com/ImLX5DYdU3
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) September 1, 2014
China Mobile is a relatively new iPhone partner, and it’s likely that whoever initiated the preorder campaign wanted to just drum up interest. When officials in Thailand spilled the beans by saying that Apple was planning to launch the iPhone 6 in two sizes in the country, Apple was quick to slap their wrists.
Source: China Daily