Apple’s star still shines bright in China. Not only will the Apple Watch grace the cover of Vogue China this November, but the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are selling like hotcakes. Preorders opened in China on October 10 and within 6 hours, 1 million handsets were ordered from the three main carriers: China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom. Thousands more were purchased from Apple’s online stores and authorized resellers across the country, according to Tencent.
It’s unknown how many more iPhone 6 units were preordered after the first 6 hours, but reservations for the new iPhones reportedly topped 9 million prior to the start of preorders. Apple is expected to sell even more new iPhones in China when the devices arrive in stores on October 17. So far, estimates place total iPhone 6 sales from the first two weeks around 21 million units. Now that China and India have been added to the long list of countries where the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are available, sales are expected to rise even higher.
Naturally, Apple hopes the same thing will happen with its first venture into the wearable market. The company has been hard at work to combat the nerdy, ugly image of smartwatches. The Apple Watch already appeared at Paris Fashion week, its designer Jony Ive gave a key interview to Vogue — which ended in an endorsement from the noted fashion magazine, and now, famous Chinese model Liu Wen will wear the Apple Watch on the cover of Vogue China’s November issue.
Angelica Cheung,Vogue China’s editor-in-chief, told Business of Fashion that she was impressed by Apple’s focus on design and the attention it paid to making an attractive device for women. “I just thought that they combined technology, style, and functionality and were very modern and, therefore, perfect accessories for the modern-day woman which is what the Vogue China woman is about,” she said.
A preview of the cover is already available and the Apple Watch is the center of attention, strapped onto Wen’s wrist. It’s unclear how well Apple’s strategy of cozying up to fashion magazines will work when it comes to convincing customers to buy the Watch, but Vogue sure is giving the device a lot of attention lately. Apple’s decision to target Chinese women specifically, may be explained by the dominance of women buyers in China’s luxury market.
