Shares in US tech giant Apple have set new highs since last week's launch of the iPhone5 amid reports of record demand for the latest iteration of its core product.
Apple' s shares (NASDAQ: AAPL) topped $700 in after hours trading at the end of last week as US equity markets touched their highest levels for five years. Investors piled in on the back of the iPhone5 launch despite the fact that the new phone failed to contain any truly ground-breaking new features. This doesn't seem to matter to consumers either with Apple reporting orders for 2m units within the first 24 hours of taking retail orders - smashing the performance of the iPhone4S which launched a year ago and sold half as many units in the opening 24 hours.
The first iPhone5s should be in consumers' hands this Friday morning but Apple has admitted that initial demand has exceeded supply and some will have to wait a short while before taking delivery. Such is the clamour for Apple's latest product that analyst Michael Walkley of Canaccord Genuity believes it could sell 9m-10m before the end of September and up to 50m globally before the end of the year.
The timing of the launch of the iPhone5 could hardly have been better, coming hot on the heels of Apple's court victory over patents against its main rival Samsung, which also threatens to slow down the release of new phone based on Google's Android operating system in the short term at least. This said, analysts have predicted sales of 36m Samsung Galaxy IIIs units in the final quarter as the two main smartphone providers tighten their grip on the market.
