(Yicai Global) Oct. 30 -- Apple Inc. [NASDAQ:AAPL] said yesterday that given the initial response from consumers, demand for the iPhone X has reached a new high and the company is sparing no effort to deliver the new product as soon as possible.

iPhone X pre-sales began globally Oct. 27. The first batch of the smartphone will be delivered to customers at 8.00 a.m. Nov. 3.

The iPhone is quite popular in China, insiders said. Apple's Chinese website started accepting iPhone X orders at 3.00 p.m. Oct. 27, and products in the first group sold out. Purchasers will get subsequent batches after three to six weeks.

The first shipment of iPhone X smartphones sold out in five seconds on Tmall.com, per the site's data. Some 50 minutes after the sale kicked off, iPhone X sales volume had surpassed the iPhone 7's release day sales volume, Tmall.com insiders said.

Rumors made the rounds yesterday that Apple had sold 5.5 million iPhone X phones in five hours in mainland China, which at USD1,262 (CNY8,388) each would correspond to CNY46.13 billion in sales.