Apple Says iPhone 5 Shatters Records

Pre-order sales of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 5 topped two million in the first 24 hours it was on sale, more than doubling the smartphone maker’s previous record with the iPhone 4S.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said on Monday that demand for its latest-generation phone is exceeding its current supply, which means some iPhone 5s may be delivered in October, at least two weeks after the first delivery scheduled for Sept. 21.

"IPhone 5 pre-orders have shattered the previous record held by iPhone 4S and the customer response to iPhone 5 has been phenomenal," Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Philip Schiller, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, AT&T (NYSE:T) set a sales record with iPhone 5 pre-sales over the weekend, making it the fastest-selling iPhone ever offered by the telecom giant, which had exclusive rights to sell the phone for three years before Apple branched out to Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and Sprint in 2011. AT&T did not disclose how many iPhones it sold.

Shares of Apple opened up about 1% to an all-time high of $698 on Monday.

The highly-anticipated iPhone, which comes with Apple’s most advanced mobile operating system, iOS 6, and boasts 200 new features from its predecessor, will begin selling at 356 Apple retail stores at 8 AM local time on Friday, Sept. 21.

The device, which will also be available at various retail stores like Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) and Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), as well as AT&T (NYSE:T), Sprint (NYSE:S) and Verizon Wireless stores, is selling for $199 for the 16 gigabyte model and up to $399 for the 64 GB phone.