Apple only manages to sell 10 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in opening weekend

Expectations always run high when it comes to sales of new iPhones during launch weekend. There's an incredible frenzy in the media fueled by loyalists, long lines form outside Apple stores (immediately followed by the first inadvertent drop caught on camera), the reviews are raving across the board (and why wouldn't they be when only loyalists get review units?) and, finally, on Monday, Apple gives its fans the much-awaited reason to celebrate -- a new first-weekend sales record.

Needless to say, the 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units that Apple managed to sell during the first weekend exceed the 9 million iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units sold a year ago. Barely. Considering the appeal that larger iPhones seem to have -- we've been waiting for them for a couple of years, after all -- 10 million sounds a tad short. It really does.

Last year, Apple sold 9 million new iPhones (well, new at the time) with the dreadful iPhone 5c in its lineup -- we all know how big of a hit it has been. Most of the weight to post a new sales record rested on iPhone 5s, which did not disappoint.

So, 9 million units were sold with only a "best new iPhone" on the market. You can imagine why 10 million units are unspectacular when two so-called best new iPhones contributed to the tally.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, as always, says the obvious:

Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier. We would like to thank all of our customers for making this our best launch ever, shattering all previous sell-through records by a large margin. While our team managed the manufacturing ramp better than ever before, we could have sold many more iPhones with greater supply and we are working hard to fill orders as quickly as possible.

Apple could have sold more had the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus been available in China during the first three days on sale. The largest smartphone market makes up the only difference between this year's availability and last year's, in the opening weekend. Still, we cannot know for sure how much of a difference China could have made, without speculating.

Nonetheless, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will sure get a sales boost following the second wave of availability, which, on September 26, will add Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates to the list of markets where the two devices are on sale. By the end of the year, Apple says its new iPhones will be offered in a total of 115 countries.

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