Chinese consumers who stood outside all night in freezing temperatures waiting to buy iPhones were greeted in the morning by security guards and told there would be no phones for sale. Riots reportedly broke out in Beijing after an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) spokesperson said the phones were sold out by the time the store was scheduled to open. The iPhone is still available to Chinese customers online and through China Unicom. (Photo courtesy of Reuters).
The angry crowd reportedly threw eggs at the closed store and started fighting with security guards. The police had to intervene, and Apple said that “for the safety of our customers and employees,” iPhones would not be sold in Beijing or Shanghai for the time being. Apple has a total of five stores in the two cities, four of which did open for long enough to sell out of the iPhone 4S.
Apple has seen explosive demand in China, with CEO Tim Cook recently describing China’s response to Apple products as “off the charts.” Much of that response is hard to quantify, since there is a large black market for iPhones in China.
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