Market analysts were dubious of the iPhone 7’s popularity in China. They may have been wrong
Apple launched the iPhone 7 last Thursday. You may have read some pessimistic articles about the new smartphone’s future shipments in China. Despite these doubts, Chinese Apple fans’ enthusiasm has led to a price surge of the new iPhones, reportedly being resold at a price exceeding RMB20,000 (US$2,998).
On the second day after the launch of the iPhone 7, market research firm IDC said that it didn’t expect the new smartphone to be a big hit in China in terms of shipments, because there were no big surprises either in design or in functions – despite the dual-lens camera, cordless headphones, larger memory and new color choices.
As it turned out, the so-called 2B colors, which incidentally means “idiot” in Chinese slang – Black and Jetblack – were most attractive to the Chinese Apple fans. The iPhone 7/7 Plus smartphones went on sale in China at 8 o’clock on Friday.
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Although only those who had preordered their new smartphone on Apple China’s official website could get the new iPhones, many fans came to the Apple stores merely to appreciate the new smartphones, particularly the black and jet black versions.
The first batch of the jet black versions were immediately snapped up after they went on sale online. If you make orders now, you will now have to wait three to five weeks before you get your jet black iPhone 7; you will not receive your jet black iPhone 7 Plus until November.
That’s why the prices of the 128GB and 256GB jet black iPhone 7 Plus smartphones have been raised by Chinese scalpers to RMB 15,000 and RMB 21,000 respectively.
It is not only the scalpers who saw commercial opportunities in here, some “insightful” merchants have come up with a compromise proposal, aimed at those who fancy the black and jet black versions of iPhone 7, but cannot get them for now: They “invented” the black and jet black stickers, which would make a space grey iPhone 6 / 6s look like an iPhone 7.
The scalpers’ price-gouging has also drawn criticism from users of Weibo, China’s largest social media.
“Annabelle Sun” wondered why some fans must buy the iPhone 7 / 7 Plus smartphones at much higher prices now rather than wait for later batches at normal prices. “Juan Amao45” launched some rhetorical questions: isn’t it a mobile phone no matter what the number after “iPhone” is? Can you feed yourself with iPhone 7? Can it relieve your sadness as a single person? Can it change the fact that you are ugly?
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A particular comment might have acted as the best explanation: it shows nothing but your bone-deep poorness to spend so much extra money on a status symbol.
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Copyright: zhaojiankangphoto / 123RF Stock Photo
The article Apple fans in China go nuts! The price of a jetblack iPhone 7 skyrockets to USD 3000 first appeared on AllChinaTech.
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