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Hong Kong's iPhone grey market cashes in on the 6s
Whenever a new iPhone launches in Hong Kong, local folks would seize the opportunity to make a quick profit from the grey market. They would get their brand new phones from either Apple or local carriers, and then sell them off to specialists who would later offer bulk orders to mainland Chinese buyers. The quicker they act, the more cash they get. The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are no exception. This morning, I was the first customer to pick up my 128GB rose gold 6s Plus from a carrier store (the shop assistants even took a photo to mark the occasion), but I quickly sold it for HK$10,000 or about US$1,290 at the Sincere Podium mobile phone mall just around the corner. That's roughly a US$250 profit based on the device's local price, which isn't bad at all.
Report suggest half of iPads sold in China come from grey market
Apple is eyeing the Chinese market for expansion, but it has a troubling problem with grey market devices that it needs to overcome first. According to a report from a Beijing research firm, over one million iPads were sold in China during Q2 2011, but almost half of these sales came from the grey market. Analysts claim Apple's delayed rollout and low inventory of products in China has contributed to this problem. The 3G iPad 2, for example, went on sale in China this September, a full six months after the device went on sale in the US. Chinese consumers that wanted an iPad 2 right away turned to local vendors and paid a little bit more to get their tablet early. When Apple stores finally got these highly desirable products, they sold out quickly and customers once again turned elsewhere for their purchasing needs. And the value of the US dollar helps to make these transactions lucrative for the sellers involved. A 3G iPad 2 with 64 GB of storage will cost US$829 in the US, while the same device can be sold for 6,288 Yuan ($900) in China. A profit of $70 per device is not huge, but if you sell hundreds in a day, this $80 bonus adds up quickly.
Shenzhen mobile phone market: going deeper inside Huaqiangbei
It's safe to say that most of our readers are accustomed to phone shops that are well lit, fairly spacious, and not peppered with KIRF products. But if you're feeling adventurous and want to take a dip in the deep end of the pool, then Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei district should satisfy your strange curiosity. As we've shown you in our previous trip, our gadget paradise covers an extensive range of products, including phones, computers, cameras, all the way down to circuitry components like LEDs, chips, and resistors. Our latest discovery, however, is an entire building dedicated to mostly mobile phone products. Read on to find out what this madness is all about -- a video tour awaits after the break. %Gallery-123728%
Apple files trademark infringement against WhiteiPhone4Now website
Apple's legal team finally caught up with Fei Lam, the teenager from New York who was selling white iPhone 4 conversion kits, and filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against him. Lam claimed to be getting white iPhone 4 parts directly from Foxconn and was reselling them on his website, whiteiphone4now.com, for US$279. He supposedly raked in over $130,000 from his endeavor until a "private investigator", thought to be hired by Apple, accused him of selling stolen goods. The trademark lawsuit was filed and voluntarily dismissed in one motion suggesting Apple and Lam reached some type of settlement. Lam is likely out of business as the wording of the dismissal leaves the door open for Apple to refile the claim in the future.
iPad 2 launch: not Apple's finest hour
Jason O'Grady, writing for ZDNet's The Apple Core, penned an incisive piece on the five ways that Apple screwed up the iPad 2 launch. I agree with every point. Usually, Apple has been very good on getting information to the huddled masses waiting for the next new iThingy, but this time the company side-stepped the issue and let everyone fend for themselves, to the liking of no one. Here's what Apple got wrong: Not allowing pre-orders: Allowing potential customers to pre-order new products helps assure they can get the new stuff in their hands on day one. This time, not so much. There are plenty of reasons pre-orders might have been infeasible, including lack of inventory or a bad component delaying shipments. Still, in a perfect world, Apple should have taken the high road and allowed pre-orders, even if the number of units allocated was slim. No availability tracker: Apple has been good about providing information on in-store availability of new products. In the past, the company has put up a page (it no longer exists), providing a grid of what stores had particular models. This prevented the stress of going to your store and coming up empty. If you were in a populated area, with a few Apple stores, you were given alternatives. This time, no such information was provided.
How the iPad 2's gray market works
You may have noticed, as you were queuing for your shiny new iPad 2 over the weekend, that you were surrounded by rather a lot of people of a foreign persuasion. There is, it turns out, a reason for this -- the gray market in selling iPad 2s abroad. Because the latest magical product from Apple came out in the US first, a couple of weeks ahead of the rest of the world, foreign dealers were keen to scoop up as many as they could and quickly ship them overseas to make a killing. M.I.C. Gadget has done an interesting analysis of how the process works. Hong Kong vendors are making a killing -- bottom-of-the-line 16 GB Wi-Fi models sell for over US$1,000, which is more than twice the original price. "Mr. Lo, the 'master' of the gray market in Hong Kong, who distributed hundreds to thousands of iPhone 4s and iPads to China's gray market last year, has already received 200 orders before the launch," they say. He paid eight couriers in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles to hop on planes to Hong Kong after securing about 200 iPads, which he planned to have on sale by March 13. When asked why he can charge more than double for most models, Mr Lo replied, "Apple fanboys are willing to pay our prices to have the iPad 2 earlier. That's how we earn money." [Via CNN]
Foxconn denies selling white iPhone parts
Manufacturer Foxconn has denied selling white iPhone parts in a statement made through the Taiwanese stock exchange. Last August, we pointed out WhiteiPhone4Now, a website selling white iPhone conversion kits. Earlier this week, the site's owner, Fei Lam, saw his project gain the attention of a private investigator who, according to Lam's attorney, was working for Apple. In the story that broke on Wednesday, it was stated that Lam was believed to be buying the casings from Foxconn, the manufacturer that assembles a number of Apple products (among other things). Today, Foxconn is denying the claim. Of course, we still don't know where Lam was getting his casings (the best-looking we're seen), or how apparently intact, legitimate white iPhone 4s are appearing elsewhere in China. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to get officially unavailable white iPhones into the hands of people willing to pay top dollar, no questions asked.
Real white iPhone 4s supposedly sold on Chinese grey market
Website Giz-China has published photos of what appear to be genuine white iPhone 4s on sale in China. The boxes are marked with a label describing them as being "for internal use only," and certainly look more convincing than many of the knock-offs we see from that area. Prices reportedly range from 5500 Yuan (about $828 as of this writing) to 8000 Yuan ($1204). This type of illegal resale has been a persistent problem for Apple. In 2008, the New York Times estimated that there were 1.4 million ill-gotten iPhones in the world. At this time last year, the Wall Street Journal estimated that number had grown to 2 million in China alone. More recently, security personnel at a Beijing Apple Store were forced to temporarily close the doors while some customers purchased huge numbers of iPhones only to re-sell them just outside the store. Additionally, Apple has begun to introduce new products to the Chinese market more quickly than before, partially in an attempt to eliminate the high-demand, low-supply environment that's so attractive to opportunistic resellers. [Via CrunchGear]
Apple now accepting cash for its cold hard iPads (video)
Nothing like a little bad press to change corporate policy. Diane Campbell made US national news this week (seriously) when her attempts to purchase an iPad with cash were rejected. Apple's no-cash policy (credit cards and debit cards only please) was put in place by Apple as a means of ensuring that customers were sticking to the two-device limit -- a policy that was originally put in place in October 2007 in order to deal with high demand for the iPhone and, some would say, to keep the devices off the grey market. Well, some members of the US media got so feverish with affect rage that they lashed out at Apple with chants of "anti-American" and "anti-disadvantaged" (Diane is described as disabled and on a fixed income). Apple has reversed the policy: it now accepts cash just as long as customers sign up for an Apple account while in the store at the time of purchase. As for Diane, she got a free iPad and "changed a little piece of the world." We feel safer already. Check the local news report video after the break if you must.
Black Wii now available from importers for $333
Yeah, we were pretty bummed that Nintendo's super-hot black Wii wasn't coming to the US, but fear not, fanboys -- it looks like the stealth console has hit the gray-market import scene. Sure, you'll have to pay a bit of a premium at $333, but surely that's a reasonable price for exclusivity, no?[Via DCEmu UK; thanks Craig]
Lik-Sang.com shut down by Sony lawsuits
Dear Lik-Sang.com,We hear your recent legal spat with Sony Computer Entertainment has ended your long and glorious run as grey market importer of choice, sapping both your resources and potential revenue streams. You were always there for us when we needed a DS lite before it hit the States, or a Japan-only karaoke-based cooking game that might've otherwise never made its way into our hands, and we're sorry to see you taken down by "The Empire" in such a dramatic fashion. If it's any consolation, it looks like the very Sony Europe execs that just busted you for supposedly infringing on their "trade marks, copyright and registered design rights," won't be able to import whatever fancy consoles Sony Japan busts out next, since most of 'em got their PSPs via you last time around. But of course, Europeans really "don't mind" waiting for Sony products, so maybe the point is moot. Anyways, you will be missed Lik-Sang, but never forgotten -- also, would you mind hooking us up with some Pokemon Diamond on your way out?Thanks,Engadget[Thanks, Mark A.]
Lik-Sang busted for grey market imports, European fanboys weep
In a move that could have serious repercussions for gamers worldwide, the UK High Court has ruled that noted Hong Kong-based electronics exporter Lik-Sang is in violation of Sony's intellectual property rights when it sells the company's hardware inside the European Economic Area. As many of you know, Lik-Sang has been a primary source for hard-to-find foreign gadgets, exporting such products as Nintendo's DS Lite weeks or months before they launch in the rest of the world. Sony claims that it will continue to pursue grey market importers under the guise of "protecting consumers" from gear that doesn't conform to local safety standards, electrical voltages, and software encoding, even though it would seem that most people purchasing these goods are fully aware of what they're getting into. This development should be especially troubling to European gamers, who may have been hoping to snatch up a PS3 several months before the scheduled rollout there; now, exporters will likely be more wary of shipping consoles to Europe in light of this legal precedent. On a completely separate note, Engadget has recently secured 1,000 PS3 units and a small plane to smuggle them overseas, where we'll be selling them out of the back of a Land Rover on a first come, first served basis for €10,000 apiece (component and HDMI cables not included).[Via Gamesindustry.biz]
