Chinese site accepting iPhone 5 pre-orders

Computing.co.uk reports.

Taobao, part of the Alibaba Group, is allowing its sellers to accept 1 000 yuan (£102) pre-order amounts for the hardware, with a seller even offering an upfront purchase amount of 6 688 yuan (£679) for a pre-ordered iPhone 5, complete with projected specs.

Some sellers are even providing percentage-based probabilities of certain features appearing as part of the iPhone 5, including a biometric sensor that apparently has a 17% chance of being present when the final product ships.

Taobao sellers that Reuters spoke with said they planned to buy the iPhone 5 in Hong Kong or the US and then bring it to mainland China, Technology Spectator writes.

Apple products are often available in Hong Kong before they are released in the mainland. The sellers could not promise a specific delivery time. The pre-order activity comes despite the mystery around the iPhone 5 and highlights the intense demand for new Apple products in China.

Apple has not confirmed the specifications, details or price of the latest iPhone, but the Internet rumour mill has been in overdrive, churning out photo renderings and pictures of purported iPhone 5 engineering samples and speculating endlessly on its technical specifications and functions.

As for features, various reports suggest the next iPhone would sport a longer form factor with a larger screen, smaller dock connector and a repositioned headphone jack, among others, International Business Times notes.

A latest report by hardware news Web site Kitguru said all these changes are likely to be implemented on the iPhone 5.

The site that claims to have “operatives across the globe” provided alleged photos of the next iPhone prototype and said the device was a “pre-release sample” and, therefore, would be “cleaned up for the retail release”.