Apple announced yesterday that it shattered previous iPhone sales records by selling nine million of the new 5s and 5c handsets over the first three days of the product’s debut weekend. The launch marks the first time Apple released a flagship product in China on the same day as other locations and the first time iPhones have been made available on NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest wireless network. According to Piper Jaffray Cos, about 15 percent of sales came from China.

By comparison, Apple sold five million iPhone 5 models during its opening weekend a year ago.

“The results underscore how Apple has upended the global technology industry since the iPhone’s 2007 debut,” reports Bloomberg. “Based on $581 for each iPhone sale — about what Apple made on average last quarter — the company probably generated $5.2 billion in sales in three days. By comparison, BlackBerry Ltd., whose phones were once the smartphone standard, reached a tentative agreement to sell itself to a buyout group for $4.7 billion after losing ground to Apple and others.”

“While we’ve sold out of our initial supply of iPhone 5s, stores continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly,” CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “We appreciate everyone’s patience and are working hard to build enough new iPhones for everyone.”

Apple released the phone on September 20 for customers in the U.S., Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK. Traditionally, Apple has given China a three-month delay for new products, but the company is looking to attract new customers in the world’s largest mobile phone market.

“The rumors of Apple’s demise are severely exaggerated,” said Laurence Balter, an analyst at Oracle Investment Research. “Those numbers blew away anything I could have imagined and just show that they are still producing the best-quality phones in the industry.”

“Apple also said that more than 200 million of its devices already were running iOS 7 — a free overhaul released last week of the operating system used on iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices,” reports The Wall Street Journal.