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back to article Crouching tiger, FAST ASLEEP dragon: Smugglers can't shift iPhone 6s

Chinese grey market sales of Apple's new iPhone 6 have been sluggish, according to local sources, as the Middle Kingdom fails to warm to the smartphones. The country's fertile grey market is usually overcome with intense demand following the announcement of a new iPhone, as the mobes are generally released a few weeks later …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Marketing

    Clearly without those annoying U2 adverts being played every ad break people in China can see the device for what it really is. A very average and very very overpriced phone.

    This and all the other current generations of phones offer nothing that is compelling enough to make it worthwhile upgrading and since they seem to have used this release to massively push the contract prices up (at least here in the UK) I definitely will be buying my next phone in cash and going SIM only, but if the iPhone 6 is the standard of what to expect over the next 12 months I could be using my current device for a long long time

    10 1 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well that can't be right. Tim Cook says they are the most popular phones they've made.

    Obviously, this is a conspiracy of Android users to undermine the will of the people. Outside of the US Apple controls a dominant 3% of the mobile phone market.

    9 4 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "...which is then skillfully smuggled into China..."

    Do you mean "Walks across the bridge with it?". It doesn't take a lot of skill.

    1 3 Reply
    1. JoshOvki
      Reply Icon
      Gimp

      It is not how they get them across the bridge, but where they put them to get them across the bridge... how many inches what that 6+ again?!

      1 0 Reply
      1. Ken 16 Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Devil

        How many inches?

        Apply say they're a 6+ but they're more like 5.5. Girls say that sort of exaggeration is common online.

        12 0 Reply
      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        They could, oooh I don't know, just put them in their bag or briefcase perhaps? It's not like everyone crossing is searched it's more hassle to cross the Severn Bridge into Wales.

        0 0 Reply
  4. Unicornpiss
    Coat

    Are all the greymarket phones

    ...in "Space Grey"? Sorry...

    0 0 Reply
    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Are all the greymarket phones

      No they come in 50 different shades.

      More fong shui, Cook, please!

      4 0 Reply
    2. Philippe
      Reply Icon

      Re: Are all the greymarket phones

      nope, Space Gray.

      0 1 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Makes a change....

    ....from smuggling endanged species body parts for their 'VOODOO'!.....what a culture.

    3 1 Reply
    1. ZSn
      Reply Icon

      Re: Makes a change....

      Or in fact like palying the national lottery which is a tax on people that can't count - and seems massively popular despite that fact being common knowledge. The chinese culture developed a lot of the basic technologies like block writing, gunpowder etc that we take for granted.

      People in glass houses etc...

      6 4 Reply
      1. Shrimpling
        Reply Icon

        Re: Makes a change....

        I thought the national lottery was a tax on optimism?

        6 0 Reply
        1. BenDwire Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: Makes a change....

          No, as Henry Davenport rightly said, it's the Moron Tax.

          5 3 Reply
          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Unhappy

            Re: Makes a change....

            Sadly, No. It's a tax on desperation as well as for the mathematically challanged.

            When you are on the bottom with no hope of improvement/decent job and "THEY" offer you a possible way out... (Same with all those illeagals waiting around in Calais after paying to get that far) grasping at straws quite literally.

            3 0 Reply
          2. DropBear
            Reply Icon

            Re: Makes a change....

            No, as Henry Davenport rightly said, it's the Moron Tax.

            I would argue calling it that is only appropriate for regular players. After all, it's said even the Lord got fed up with the Scotsman praying every day for a lottery win to ease his poverty and told him "I'd love to help you out, but you really have to buy a ticket first..."

            1 0 Reply
  6. Steve Knox
    Coat

    Domestically Manufactured?

    There are also rumours suggesting the government has ordered staff to use domestically manufactured phones in the wake of the Snowden leaks.

    Why should that be a problem for the iPhone (or almost any other electronic device)?

    6 0 Reply
  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Another way of looking at it...

    The people in China are prepared to wait a few weeks for the official launch so they can get them cheaper, with a warranty and without funding crime?

    7 2 Reply
    1. Mike Bell
      Reply Icon

      Re: Another way of looking at it...

      Since you're likely to get shot in China just for reading a p0rn mag, what's the penalty for using a mobile device that doesn't have the current regulatory clearance?

      Apple would already be selling the iPhone 6 in China if they had permission to do so.

      1 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Another way of looking at it...

      "with a warranty"

      They must have seen how easily they bend!

      3 3 Reply
  8. knarf

    "But, smugglers are not only reporting fewer sales"

    Make me laugh. read it as "Butt smugglers"

    5 0 Reply
    1. Monkey Bob
      Reply Icon
      Meh

      Re: "But, smugglers are not only reporting fewer sales"

      You're holding it wrong.

      7 2 Reply
  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    An atlernative theory

    The dwindling popularity of grey market iPhones could be down to a crackdown on state corruption, which has caused normally lavish apparatchiks to curb their spending

    Or the chinese have woken up to value for money where you can get a phone just as good (if not better) for half the price.

    6 3 Reply
  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well the article actually says they are selling them and ONLY making a markup of $163.

    "But, smugglers are not only reporting fewer sales, but a dwindling markup, with some wholesalers reporting profits of just $163 per device."

    Perhaps people are expecting official sales soon so not prepared to pay extra for a grey import?

    2 0 Reply
  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Was it only me...

    ...who read that headline as referring to an "iPhone 6s"? Which doesn't exist, so must be some kind of fake and of course they can't get rid of them... the actual story is much more boring!

    0 0 Reply
  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Are they even the right model for China?

    Not all models support TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE required on China Mobile's network, the rest (and all versions other than the 5S model sold for China Mobile's network starting at the beginning of this year) only work on Edge.

    Probably China Mobile customers are wise to this fact and wait to insure they get the right model. The ones that are being sold are for customers of the other two (much smaller) carriers, the China Mobile subscribers await the model that supports their carrier's networks.

    Also, 6s are probably in less demand than 6 Plus there, the Chinese really like the large phones. A friend who lives there tells me 6" - 7" phones are all the rage with twenty somethings, the bigger the better; even the 6 Plus and Note 4 may be too small for some of them!

    As for importers making "only" $150 on each phone....I know I left my tiny violin laying around here somewhere...

    1 0 Reply
    1. Tom 35
      Reply Icon

      Re: Are they even the right model for China?

      Or they are just waiting for a gold colour version.

      0 0 Reply
  13. Speltier

    Security

    The 6 is reputed to be more resistant to tame[1] security attacks by Big Bro, you'd think the Chinese would have more interest.

    [1] the less tame ones using a rubber hose are still effective

    1 0 Reply
  14. Peter 39

    I guess many in China heard that it will be on regular sale soon, and decided not to pay the smuggler-surcharge.

    Good thing too, as now it might be possible to get one at the local Apple Store. Unlocked/T-Mobile ones have been unobtainable.

    1 0 Reply
  15. gerryg

    belatedly - may I ...

    ... compliment you on yet another great headline.

    0 0 Reply
  16. Ilsa Loving

    Oblig.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo

    0 0 Reply

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