Apple launched its iPhone 4 in China Saturday morning.
More than 1,000 people lined up outside Xidan Joy City shopping mall, where one of two new Apple stores had its grand opening. Some customers waited as long as two days to get their hands on one of the phones.
“Physically, it’s been painful. But mentally, I’m very happy,” said Yu Zhong Hui, 27, who was first in line. “When you want something, you have to pay a price. The price I paid is that everyone has had to see me wait out here.”
Those who waited the longest were allowed to sleep overnight in the shopping mall’s hallway. As they waited in line Saturday morning, a few draped blankets around their bodies, while others played cards or took photos of the large crowd with their mobile phones. But those in line said it was well worth it.
“It’s like waiting in line to see a movie star,” said 26-year-old Sun Jian Kuan, who is a systems engineer. “No phone can best the iPhone.”
The launch of the iPhone 4 in China appears to have attracted more customers than Apple’s release of its previous iPhone. Apple would offer no figures, but China Unicom, the mobile carrier for the device, has reported that 50,000 users signed up for an iPhone 4 on the first day of pre-orders. This beats the initial 5,000 devices that were sold through China Unicom in the first few days after the iPhone 3GS and 3G went on sale in China last year.
Even as the iPhone 4 officially goes on sale in China, the device has already been available in the country’s gray market, where products are bought from overseas markets and then resold by local vendors in China. But buying from such sellers is more of an inconvenience, since the phones must be unlocked and are not specifically designed for China, said some people in line for an official iPhone 4.
Apple has priced its iPhone 4 without a contract at 4,999 yuan (€555) for the 16Gb model and 5,999 yuan (€666) for the 32Gb model.
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