“Apple Inc’s next-generation iPhone has not even been released yet, but opportunistic sellers on China’s largest e-commerce platform, Taobao, are already accepting pre-orders, complete with mock-up pictures and purported technical specifications,” Melanie Lee reports for Reuters.
“The hotly anticipated iPhone 5 is widely expected to be released sometime between August and October this year, although Apple itself has been tight-lipped about it. Sources have said the iPhone 5 would have a bigger screen than previous models, while Taiwanese media reported the phone’s voice recognition software, Siri, would have more powerful functions,” Lee reports. “Sellers on Taobao, a unit of Alibaba Group, are accepting orders for the iPhone 5, in some cases asking for a deposit of 1,000 yuan ($160) for the new phone. One seller, “Dahai99888″, who started accepting pre-orders this week, is asking for full payment upfront, at a cool 6,999 yuan ($1,100).”
Lee reports, “Taobao sellers that Reuters spoke with said they planned to buy the iPhone 5 in Hong Kong or the United States and then bring it to mainland China. ‘Demand is high. Yesterday someone just bought two phones. Altogether we have about two dozen orders,’ said one seller on Taobao who went by the nickname Xiaoyu.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Munster was right, iPhone 5 (or whatever it’ll be called) certainly is going to be the “Mother of all Upgrades.”
Maybe Microsoft should do Surface preorders, Balmy will take one.
No iPhone for YOU, unless it’s 4″!!!
Signed,
The iPhone Nazi
I don’t know, maybe. The iPhone has such a perfect screen size; I worry about increasing it. It fits in the hand and pocket so well.
People who say you look weird taking a picture with an iPad or other tablet may have a point, but people talking on a miserable 4.5″ Android brick look even weirder.
Heck, I’m gonna start taking orders for the iPhone 6!
Only charging $2500.
There’s going to be a bit of a wait though and the specs list is still under development.
Plan on it being available around the same time as the “Surface”.
So the 6th iPhone will be named iPhone 5.
iPhone 4G makes more sense than iPhone 5.
With the numbering system as it has been (iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S) only the original and the iPhone 4 bore their respective generation numbers. With 4S, confusion with the generation and the model naming for future phones was inevitable.
iPhone 5 would be logical to almost everyone, except those of us who frequent sites like this, and care that 5 does not accurately follow 4 if 4 is followed by an S; that on such cases 4 (with an s) must be followed by a 6.
No matter how they number it, someone will be either confuses or mathematically unsatisfied, so it looks like they’re scrapping that method for language more consistent with the rest of Apple hardwae products: the new iPhone.
I’d imagine they will keep the numbering system for the software and OSes though: iOS 6, OS X. Which is even greater motivation to scrap numbers on the hardware: “My iPhone 5 just came out with iOS 6, which also runs on my kids iPhone 4S”
And since AT&T got the green light to display “4G” on the 4S for HSPA , calling the new iPhone ‘iPhone 4G’ would only be another point for confusion. MAYBE ‘iPhone LTE’ but that looks too much like iPhone-lite, so that is VERY unlikely.
Just goes to show you. In China anyone can steal, lie, cheat and its just a normal way of doing business.
The phone does not officially exist and they are posting specs and taking money. Makes “Made in China” sound like a bad thing.
Or Appke could just adopt the new iPad strategy and just call the new phone “iPhone”….
how will this effect iPhone 5 supply in the west. i suppose production will have to skyrocket, too.
Hmmm, now I could announce I am taking pre-orders for iPhone9 at a ‘discount’ and deposit the money and ….
Well, at least I wouldn’t have to deliver until it actually ships.
ILLEGAL: China’s largest e-commerce platform, Taobao, are already accepting pre-orders
Typical China flimflam BS. What a hellhole. 😛