iPhone 5 preorders hit 2M in 24 hours

The iPhone 5 is off to a hot start. Apple announced today that preorders for the new smartphone, which went live September 14, topped 2 million in 24 hours. This is more than double the previous record of 1 million held by the iPhone 4S.

Apple said demand for the iPhone 5 has exceeded initial supply, and though the "majority" of reserved units will be delivered to users on September 21, many are slated to arrive in October.

If the iPhone 5 is to topple another iPhone 4S sales record, it will need to sell more than 4 million units at launch this weekend.

The iPhone 5 was announced last week during a presentation in San Francisco, California. The device is the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever made, and will be available at launch starting at $199 and scaling up to $399 for a 64GB model.