In Beijing Mainland China – Last Friday was yet again another failure grand opening for Apple’s flagship store in the area of Sanlitun district when the local police and Apple decided to suspend their first-day opening to sell iPhone 4S. The place was filled with more than 1,000 people, where most of them were already in line the night before and enduring the freezing temperature just to get the chance to avail Apple’s iPhone 4S. So what do you expect for this kind of crowd when Apple and the local police decided not to commence with the scheduled selling date? Of course, people went berserk out of frustration and pelted the Apple store’s gleaming walls with eggs.
Why Did Apple Suspended The Opening?
According to the report, the main reason of Apple is to “protect” both their employees and all that crowd outside. Apple decided to temporarily suspend the opening of their flagship store because of the mentioned risk above and no one knows as to when they will resume. However, Apple says that they will still continue to supply and sell iPhone 4S through online stores and other Apple’s retailer partners such as Unicom – Apple’s official partner in China.
More than 1,000 people waiting? Why and how?
I must admit and also according to the report, the demand for iPhone 4S in China have grown more than what Apple was expecting thus Apple is now lacking of supply. And because of this unexpected demand for iPhone 4S, scalpers or people who intends to resell a certain product at possibly higher price, hired migrant workers to buy an iPhone 4S in an exchange of a certain amount. Since Apple decided to suspend the opening of the store made the crowd pretty angry and threw eggs towards the store. The local police of China had to dispersed the angry crowd to avoid further problems.
This incident in China garnered different comments and opinions from other people all over the world who heard and/or saw the report. Some did not liked what happened and did not favored the actions made by the crowd – just because of iPhone 4S. While some said that they will also feel the same especially if they were already there the night before enduring the freezing weather.
Would you go this far over iPhone 4S? What’s your thought about this?
