Reports Indicate Oct. 10 Launch For Apple's iPhone 6 In China

There are a number of Apple oriented websites including Apple Insider, 9to5 Mac and MacRumors that are reporting Apple could start selling the iPhone 6 in China starting on Friday, October 10, based upon a TechWeb article that has a screen shot of an internal Apple memo. This comes just after the head of China’s MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) said the iPhone’s approval was in the final stages.

The screen shot, via Google translate, says that iPhone prototype store shelves (shelves?, maybe iPhones?) will be in stores on October 7 with sales starting three days later on October 10. This would be two weeks into the company’s fiscal first quarter and depending on supply could materially help holiday sales.

BMO’s Apple analyst, Keith Bachman, believes that China could swing December quarter iPhone sales by more than 10 million. He is currently projecting 58 million iPhones to be sold in the holiday quarter and he said that if they are available for the full quarter than his estimate is likely conservative. He raised his revenue and EPS estimates last week, especially for fiscal 2015.

Stifel’s Apple analyst, Aaron Rakers, December quarter’s 65.3 million iPhone estimate is based on shipments starting by the end of the quarter, but no specific timeframe was called out.

iPhone 6 Plus lead-times at 3-4 weeks

I have been tracking iPhone 6 lead-times since the first day they were available. Most of Apple’s websites have the iPhone 6 lead-times at either at 5-7 or 7-10 business days. The iPhone 6 Plus lead-times are almost all at 3-4 weeks. If iPhones do become available on October 10 I suspect the 6 Plus’s lead-times will stay elongated through the holiday season.