Three Asian countries are listed as part of the first wave of the iPhone 6's global launch on September 19. iDevice lovers in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore will be among the first to enjoy the new smartphones from Apple. Other countries were identified as the U.S., France, Germany and Australia.
It was a big surprise for China not to be included in the list when in the past, the country had been one of the launch venues of the iPhone 5S. The device became initially available across all of China's major carriers.
Apple's staff in China seemed to be unprepared for the last minute change of plans. One executive even commented that all of Apple's stores in Shanghai and Beijing had been gearing up for sales to begin on September 19. "Apple completely let us down without prior notice," added the manager.
Apple is not available to give a comment on its latest release plans. "China is a key market for us and we will get there as soon as possible," said Apple.
Several speculations were made to explain the cause of the iPhone 6 delay. Chinese media said that Apple has not been granted with the required certification from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The latter is in charge with inspecting new smartphones prior to their release by Chinese carrier networks.
Another explanation says that supply-chain difficulties have limited the supply of the new smartphones from Apple which prompted the company to delay the phones' roll out.
The exclusion of China was also speculated to be part of Apple's angered response to the mobile carriers in China which had leaked the details of the iPhone 6 prior to the launch event.
The three carriers, China Unicom, China Telecom and China Mobile had posted information on the iPhone 6 and had received pre-orders of the device in anticipation of the launch date. They have already removed the information from their sites after hearing about the delay from Apple.
China is one of Apple's biggest markets when it comes to the sales of its products. Analysts have predicted that the new Apple devices would do well in China once they become available.
"The iPhone 6 Plus will kill all the big-screen Android devices to become the new must-have for rich people," wrote Wang Guanxiong who is a well-known tech marketing expert and a former software director for e-commerce giant Alibaba. Wang added that the upcoming Apple iWatch would also become popular because of the device's superior design and built-in software features.
As the release date in China is yet to be announced, pricing details are also unconfirmed. In Singapore, prices range from S$988 to S$1,288 for the iPhone 6 while the iPhone 6 Plus goes from S$1,148 to S$1,448.
