Apple said today that pre-orders for the new mobile device surpassed 2 million in the first 24 hours. A majority of pre-ordered phones will be delivered as planned by September 21, but many will not be delivered until October, it said.

Pre-orders "have shattered the previous record held by iPhone 4S, and the customer response to iPhone 5 has been phenomenal," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

Apple's US store, at www.apple.com, today morning showed pre-orders for the iPhone 5 would take two to three weeks to ship.

Apple began taking orders for the iPhone 5 at midnight Pacific time September 14 (0700 GMT September 15). Shipping dates for the slimmer, faster smartphone slipped by a week within an hour of the start of pre-orders.

Apple previously said it would start shipping the iPhone 5 by September 21 in the United States and most of the major markets of Europe such as France, Germany and the UK. It goes on sale September 28 in 22 other countries.