On the eve of the launch of the Apple iPhone 5, shares of Apple Inc. AAPL +1.23% crossed over $700 in trading Monday evening. They hit $700.44 shortly after evening trade started, and were recently up 2 cents at $699.80. The shares finished the day session at an all-time high of $699.78 following the company’s announcement that pre-orders for its new iPhone 5 topped 2 million units in 24 hours. Year-to-date, Apple shares have climbed roughly 73%.
“iPhone 5 pre-orders have shattered the previous record held by iPhone 4S and the customer response to iPhone 5 has been phenomenal,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone 5 is the best iPhone yet, the most beautiful product we’ve ever made, and we hope customers love it as much as we do.”
Demand for iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply and while the majority of pre-orders will be delivered to customers on September 21, many are scheduled to be delivered in October.
