Chinese pre-orders for Apple's iPhone 17 break records amid strong demand

Pre-order sales of Apple's new iPhone 17 series have got off to a robust start in China, shattering previous records despite delays in the shipment of the iPhone Air.In the first minute after pre-orders began at 8pm Friday local time, sales on JD.com -- one of China's largest online shopping platforms -- surpassed the first-day pre-order volume of last year's iPhone 16 series, according to the e-commerce operator. The standard iPhone 17 with 256GB of storage emerged as the most popular variant, JD.com said.Those numbers excluded the iPhone Air, the company's thinnest model ever, as its release has been postponed...