Despite China’s iPhone ban, buyers and scalpers are flocking to Apple stores
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People line up as they wait at an Apple Store as Apple’s new iPhone 15 officially goes on sale across China, in Shanghai.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SHANGHAI – Chinese customers flocked to Apple stores to buy the iPhone 15 despite government restrictions and local competition, an encouraging sign for the world’s most valuable company in its largest overseas market.
Hundreds of people lined up at an outlet in the Wangfujing neighbourhood of Beijing, waiting for sales staff, as scalpers hovered nearby. In Shanghai, too, crowds packed Apple’s flagship store on East Nanjing Road.
In the Beijing store, a 20-year-old buyer with the surname Liu said he traded in an older iPhone for the iPhone 15 Pro because he wanted a better camera.
The improved processor would also make it more potent for gaming. “I prefer a device with (the) best performance,” he added.
The iPhone 15 release is a key test for Apple of whether refreshed specs and features
The Communist Party is expanding a ban on iPhone use in certain agencies and state-owned enterprises, and rival Huawei Technologies just introduced its highly touted Mate 60 Pro.
There appeared to be fewer scalpers outside the Wangfujing store compared with previous Apple releases. One scalper asked for an additional 1,000 yuan (S$190) from a potential customer who wanted an iPhone 15 Pro.
Premiums asked by other scalpers were similarly modest. Another, selling an iPhone 15 Pro Max with one terabyte of storage, asked for an extra 800 yuan. The iPhone 15 Pro with 512 gigabytes ran only 400 yuan to 500 yuan extra.
Another scalper approached a buyer just stepping out of the store, but when he learned the buyer had a Pro Max in natural titanium, he backed off. He said the colour is not popular.
“It’s pretty strange the new colour doesn’t sell today,” said the scalper in his early 20s. The man said he sold only one device in the first two hours of the release.
In Shanghai, the scalpers were making modest profits too.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max in titanium or white runs about 800 yuan over Apple’s retail price, one scalper said. There is no immediate resale market for the blue iPhone though, according to social media site Xiaohongshu.
In India, Apple is expected to gain a larger share of the country’s smartphone sales, with the high-end iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models accounting for more of its shipments.
The company is projected to account for 7 per cent of all smartphone sales in the country from July to December, up from 5 per cent in the first half of 2023, according to data from market researcher Counterpoint.
Apple has been touting India as its next big growth driver amid declining sales of its flagship device.
Its suppliers have also been ramping up manufacturing operations in the region amid weakening demand and regulatory pressure in China.
Wait times in India for Apple’s latest 15 Pro and Pro Max models, that go on sale on Friday, are stretching up to late October, mirroring trends seen in China and the United States. bloomberg, REUTERS
