Jing Gao
Worldwide sales of Apple’s latest iPhone 6s series have officially started today. Even though Chinese netizens have expressed disappointment at a perceived lack of innovation and have made fun of the new rose gold color, preorder sales numbers and online surveys show that demand still remains strong among Chinese consumers.
In Apple’s Q1, 2015, earnings report, sales of the iPhone in Greater China had for the first time surpassed those of the U.S. As of Q1, 2015, the iPhone had a market share of 14.7% in China, pushing Xiaomi to second place.
Unlike previous iPhone releases, whose initial launches excluded mainland China leading to iPhone scalpers inflating prices across the mainland, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus will be available at mainland Apple Stores throughout China.
Tencent has created a page chronicling the opening of sales at multiple Apple Stores on the mainland. Below are selected posts.
At 7:30 am, about 200 were already lined up in front of one Apple Store in Beijing, waiting for the store to open. Customers were ushered in on a first-come-first-serve basis. Photo ID was required for purchases.
These three all bought the rose-gold colored Iphone 6s.
This is the front entrance of an Apple Store in Hong Kong. Quite a number of people.
At the Hong Kong store, about 600 people have been lining up. More are on their way.
This man is the first to own the new iPhone at the Hong Kong store.
However, after leaving the store some have already started to look to sell their new purchase. The listed price for a rose-gold color iPhone 6S Plus 128-GB is 9,600 HKD. Not many scalpers are on the scene. Some onlookers claim the price has been jacked up to 11,000 HKD.
Spotted: 6S rose gold at the Beijing store.
Deal struck! Scalpers are doing the math on how much they can make from this deal. They are counting money.
This guy almost sold his newly-bought iPhone. He gave up the plan because he didn’t like what the scalper offered.
A close-up of a rose-gold colored iPhone 6S bought from the Beijing store.
In the Sanlitun Apple Store in Beijing, lines began to form right after midnight. Some staunch Apple supporters came all the way from Inner Mongolia, or several hundred miles away.
Photos from Tencent Tech.
