Apple's first golden iPhone has reportedly sold out immediately in Hong Kong and mainland China.
State-run news website sh.eastday.com reported on Wednesday that the gold iPhone 5S models were quickly bought up after online pre-orders began on Tuesday morning.
"The Apple reservation page went down once. In forums, many people talked about how they were begging to buy the gold model," it said, adding that all three 5S colours in every store had been reserved by 1pm (1500 AEST) on Tuesday.
Favoured by emperors and representing wealth and luxury in Chinese culture, gold has become a badge of the country's newly wealthy.
Pre-orders for the iPhone 5S - also available in silver and "space grey" - launched at 6am Tuesday in both Hong Kong and mainland China.
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"Right after it started, the champagne gold model was sold out," Hong Kong-based broadcaster Phoenix TV said on its website.
It was not clear how many gold phones had been made available to pre-order.
Users on Hong Kong forums who had managed to pre-order the grey or silver version of the phone were looking to trade for a gold one.
One dealer told AFP that the gold phones could still resell at a profit.
"Gold represents you are actually holding a new phone," said Lau Chi-kong of G-world Mobile in the commercial district of Mong Kok.
"There will be (a margin) of a few hundred dollars to a thousand (Hong Kong dollars)".
Another told Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily that the gold iPhones could sell for at least HK$8,000 ($1,000), an HK$2,000 mark-up on the official price.
Apple's Hong Kong website on Wednesday took down the link to the 5S pre-order page, saying reservations would resume on September 21.
The company brought in the pre-order system in Hong Kong after chaos at the iPhone 4S launch in 2011, where hundreds queued for days to buy a phone from the city's flagship store and resellers crowded the area.
