Apple's latest flagships, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, have finally become available to Chinese consumers as the two smartphones rolled out on Friday, Oct. 17. The two devices were sold in Apple's 12 outlets in mainland China and three major telecoms.

However, despite the iPhone 6's popularity in other nations where 10 million units were sold within the first 24 hours during its simultaneous launch in 10 countries, excluding China, on Sept. 19, the flagships of the Cupertino-based tech giant are not expected to fly off the shelves because of its relatively high price when compared to the much lower retail prices of locally made smartphones.

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Even compared to Hong Kong prices, the iPhone is more expensive in the mainland. Business Insider reports that a 16 GB phone sells at the equivalent price of $867 in China or $141 higher compared to its $726 equivalent tag price in Hong Kong.

The iPhone 6 Plus with 128 GB has a price tag equivalent to $1,277 in the mainland.

But despite the costlier units, an analyst believes the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will sell more units than Apple's previous iPhone 5 series. Xu Hao of Analysys explained the expected higher number of sales of the two flagships is due to the larger screens offered by the two latest units. The iPhone 6 features a 4.7-inch display, while the iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5-inch screen.

"It's all about the screen size ... this time the bigger screen makes it easier to watch movies, browse the Web, and of course, type," The Wall Street Journal quoted Sun Wei, a 28-year-old employee who lined up on Friday to pick up his pre-ordered unit. According to Chinese e-commerce company JD.com, as of Thursday, it has 9.5 million pre-orders for the two iPhone 6 models.

Despite the expected higher sales in the mainland of the two flagships, Apple - which has a 6.9 percent market share in China - is not expected to overtake its Asian rival, Samsung of South Korea, which enjoys a 15.4 market share. Apple is only in sixth place, behind other phone makers that sell more affordable smartphones using Android operating systems.

According to WSJ, during the Friday launch, the 24 private security guards hired by Apple outnumbered the handful of customers who showed up Friday morning, most of whom were buyers who came to pick up their pre-ordered units. In contrast, when the iPhone 4 launched in China in January 2012, the Sanlitun store had to delay the sale because of a near-riot, while in May 2011 customers and store employees fought during the white iPhone 4's release.

Because of the one month delay in the launch of the iPhone 6 in China due to pressure from the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for Apple to improve its personal data security before it was granted approval to sell, media reports said there was widespread smuggling and black market sales of the two models prior to Oct. 17. 

TagsiPhone 6 Plus, iPhone sales, phone sales China