komenalager: iPhone 5c up for pre-orders in nine countries including US, UK and China

Apple has now made pre-orders for iPhone 5c live on its online stores in the nine countries which are part of the first phase of the phone's release.

iPhone 5c is now up for pre-orders in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore and China. It's worth pointing out that it's the first time that China is in the first batch of countries getting the iPhone.

iPhone 5c is also available for pre-order on websites of carriers that have tied-up with Apple in the above mentioned countries. It's also the first time that the iPhone will be available through Japanese carrier NTTDocomo.

Customers who pre-order the phone will receive it on September 20th or later, the date the iPhone 5c will go on general sale alongside the iPhone 5s.

The iPhone 5c is available in five colours including White, Red, Yellow, Blue and Green, and in two storage variants, 16GB and 32GB. While the 16GB version of the carrier-unlocked iPhone is priced at $549 (approx. Rs. 35,000) the 32GB variant costs $649 (approx. Rs. 41,386).

(Also see: iPhone 5c price disappointment: 'Low-cost iPhone' fails to check-in)

Apple had announced two new iPhones at a special event on Tuesday.? The iPhone 5c sports a brand new hard-coated polycarbonate casing but features almost the same internals as the iPhone 5, including the same A6 chip, 4-inch Retina display with a resolution of 640x1136 pixels and an 8-megapixel rear camera. However, it comes with a bigger battery, a better front-facing camera and enhanced 4G/ LTE support.

(Also see: iPhone 5c vs. iPhone 5: A worthy 'upgrade' from Apple? )

Apple had also announced the iPhone 5s, which comes with a number of improvements including a new A7 chip that supports 64-bit computing, a faster graphics processor, M7 co-processor for tracking data from the different sensors of the phone, a fingerprint scanner on its Home button, and a much improved camera with support for a burst mode and slow motion
video capture, in addition to a dual-LED flash.

(Also see: 10 new features in Apple's iPhone 5s)

Both iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s will ship with iOS 7, the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system.

(Also see: 10 big improvements in iOS 7)

iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s launch in pictures