Beiruting News

Apple has smashed its own records by selling nine million iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C handsets during the first three days - working out as 125,000 an hour, on average, or around 2083 a minute.

The tech giant also announced that 200 million devices are now running the iOS 7 software, despite download problems and divided opinion.

Last year's iPhone 5 sales topped five million during its opening weekend in September 2012, yet only one handset was available - as opposed to this year's two - and it wasn't sold in China from launch.

This is our best iPhone launch yet-more than nine million new iPhones sold-a new record for first weekend sales,' said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.