NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Apple announced it sold 9 million of the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C models since they went on sales Friday — a record opening weekend for the iPhone.
That’s nearly double the 5 million iPhones that Apple sold during the first three days that the iPhone 5 was on sale last year, and sales were well above Wall Street analysts’ expectations. Shares of Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) rose 6% Monday morning.
But this year’s stellar opening weekend for Apple comes with two sizable caveats: Apple included China in the iPhone 5S and 5C launches. Last year, China didn’t get the new iPhone 5 until December. Apple also launched two new iPhones this year, heavily marketing the colorful iPhone 5C. In 2012, Apple only unveiled one new kind of iPhone.
The iPhone 5S, which comes in gold, silver or space gray, is available in the United States for a suggested retail price of between $199 to $399. The iPhone 5C, which comes in blue, green, pink, yellow and white, is available for between $99 to $199.
Still, the news was very good for a company that has been living under a microscope lately, scrutinized for launching new devices with only incremental updates. Apple said this weekend’s heavy demand caused it to exhaust its initial supply of the iPhone 5S.
