iPhone 4s illegally on sale in China

Today the iPhone 4s was 'legally' released on the Chinese mainland.

I heard of massive queues in Shanghai and read of trouble in Beijing with an Apple store refusing to open for fear of crowd safety.

Here in Shenzhen, southern China, things were a bit more relaxed I walked past an authorised retailer Suning offering the iPhone 4s on the China Unicom network, China Mobile's nearest competitor, and there was no queue at all.

Here in Shenzhen, it's been relatively easy to buy an iPhone 4s here for months. They are bought by gangsters in Hong Kong who buy them online then smuggle the phones across the border into the mainland. Ironically back to Shenzhen where they were made in the first place. (See my blip Nov 16, 2011i Phone factory's suicide prevention nets)

This shot was taken in King Glory Shopping Centre, Luohu, Shenzhen which is within walking distance of the Hong Kong border. Of course this is not an authorised Apple reseller. That's maybe why they tried to stop me taking a picture!

If you want to read more click on this:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CHINA_APPLE?SITE=NCGRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT