Sales of Apple’s iPhone 6 in China reportedly outstripped shipments in the US for the first time in Q4.

Despite being launched a month later (mid-October) and costing 25 per cent more (for the 16GB iPhone 6), China accounted for more than a third of iPhone 6 shipments during the quarter compared to the US making up less than quarter, according to a UBS analyst.

A year ago China had a 22 per cent share of iPhone sales.

Apple’s iOS made up 15.7 per cent of smartphone OS sales in China, according to end-October stats from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

Many Chinese consumers prefer the larger iPhone 6 Plus over the smaller iPhone 6, with a reported 6:4 ratio. The higher memory models are also much more popular than the 16GB versions. Consumers generally have to wait up to two weeks for the gold models and 128GB capacity versions.

In the US the iPhone 6 Plus to iPhone 6 sales ratio is about 1:3.

The UBS report estimates that Apple sold 69.3 million iPhones in the last quarter of 2014.