If you want to buy an iPhone 5 in Hong Kong directly from Apple, it goes on sale tomorrow, Friday, September 21st. There are no in-store walk-in sales, you must have a reservation to get one. This is a carry-over from the madness that ensued in the past when other Apple mobile products went on sale here.
As of Thursday morning, there’s still nothing via the Apple Store iPhone app. You can select the model, size and color but you’re then told it’s currently unavailable and that’s that.
You can go to Apple’s online HK store to request a reservation.
Due to high demand, we are accepting a limited number of iPhone 5 reservations per day. To request an iPhone 5 reservation, please choose your store and the iPhone 5 you want. If we have an iPhone 5 reservation for you, you’ll receive a confirmation email by 9:00 p.m. tonight that includes the time when you can pick up your iPhone 5 tomorrow. A current and valid government-issued photo ID exactly matching the name and full ID number on your reservation is required for iPhone purchases.
If you don’t receive an email, we were unable to reserve an iPhone for you, and you can try again another time. Only those who receive an email confirming their reservation will be able to purchase iPhone 5; we will not be selling iPhone 5 to walk-in customers. However, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S will be available for walk-in purchase.
Not exactly the most customer-friendly system, is it?
Of course Apple’s web site is getting pummeled at the moment. Here’s the direct link for placing a reservation. The page takes a long time to load and you might get some connection resets so hit the refresh button and be patient.
Meanwhile in the US, ship times for the iPhone 5 have slipped to 3-4 weeks.
Apple released iOS version 6 last night with about 200 new “features” – including an improved Siri (so far I’ve never used Siri except as a goof) and Apple maps replacing the Google maps app.
Apple also released Mountain Lion 10.8.2 last night, a free upgrade if you have the Mountain Lion 10.8 operating system on your Mac. Apple says improved battery life for laptops, power nap for some older laptops and more Facebook integration.
There’s basically two reasons I’ve ever had a smart phone: Email and maps. Apple maps is more or less a joke. Not sure why anyone would voluntarily switch to iOS 6.
After two days with the new Apple maps, I have to agree with you. Horrible and stupid. I hope Google gets a maps app into the iTunes store soon.
The HK iPhone 5 reservation system is a scam. I have 15 friends reserving it everyday like me an NONE of us has got any reply. They are just getting our names,IDs, email for free for whatever purposes who knows.