Unauthorised iPhone stores mushroom in China ahead of 6s launch
24 Sep 2015
On a bustling street in China's southern boomtown of Shenzhen, more than 30 stores carrying Apple Inc's iconic white logos peddle pre-orders for the new iPhone, a gadget that has become a status symbol among many better-off Chinese.
Many of the stores look just like Apple's signature outlets, right down to the sales staff kitted out in blue T-shirts bearing the company's white logo and the sample iPads and iWatches displayed on sleek wooden tables.
But the world's second-largest smartphone vendor only has one official store in Shenzhen and five authorized dealers in the area. Most of the stores in the roughly 1 km shopping corridor are unauthorised ''fakes'' – although they sell genuine Apple products – and their numbers have mushroomed ahead of the release on Friday of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6s Plus, reports Reuters.
The rapid increase in copycat Apple stores underscores the popularity of the brand in China, where it doubled its revenue in the third quarter from a year earlier to more than $13 billion, and suggests the US tech giant is on course to shrug off weakening consumer spending in its second biggest market.
Apple routinely grapples with iPhone supply constraints, particularly in years that involve a smartphone re-design.
The latest iteration of the iPhone, featuring larger screens and longer battery life, will only be available on the launch date in China to customers who have reserved online, and the company has said pre-order demand has outstripped supply.
Shenzhen's unauthorised Apple stores are taking advantage, banking on quick-hit gains from re-selling devices bought via authorised sales channels for as much as double the official price to consumers unwilling to wait weeks for stock to arrive.
The fake stores are also taking pre-orders, but say they will have the new phones from Friday.
Several workers at the stores said they were buying iPhone models in China and in overseas markets such as the United States and Hong Kong, from where they would be smuggled across the border into the mainland.
Apple declined to comment on the proliferation of unauthorised stores in China.
