Apple Inc. T -1.79% said customers placed more than 2 million pre-orders for the iPhone 5 on the first day it was available, doubling previous results and exceeding initial supply of the smartphone.

 "The customer response to iPhone 5 has been phenomenal," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of world-wide marketing, in a news release Monday.
The Cupertino, Calif., company said that while the majority of pre-orders will be delivered to customers on Friday—when the phone becomes available in stores—many are scheduled to arrive in October.
"Clearly, the iPhone 5 is off to a very strong start," Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White said, adding the figure "handily beat" the firm's estimate of between 1.3 million and 1.5 million pre-orders.