Hong Kong Apple store repels fanbois, scalpers
Form an orderly queue ...
Signs have started springing up around Apple’s flagship store in Hong Kong telling people not to bother queuing for the shiny new fondleslab when it launches on Friday, in an apparent attempt to stop ill-informed fanbois and mainland scalpers from crowding the streets around the building.
Apple has yet to confirm or deny to The Reg whether it was responsible for putting up the signs which read:
No staying and queuing up here. Apple will not serve on a first come first serve basis for new ipad. Please refer to Apple’s official website for the detailed arrangement.
However, given the slightly odd grammar and absence of fruity branding, it seems more likely that the signs were put up by the police or local authorities.
When The Reg popped down on Wednesday evening a queue of 100 or so iPad seekers had already formed, inexplicably not directly outside the store but across a footbridge a few hundred yards away.
They will be queuing in vain though as Apple has already instituted the same Reserve and Pick Up system it used for the iPhone 4S, which means no walk-in purchases.
Instead, customers must input their name, address and government ID number on the Apple web site to enter a kind of iPad lottery, whereby if the Apple gods are smiling on them they will be sent an email telling them what time the following day they can collect their brand new fondleslab.
It was brought in seemingly in a bid to prevent so-called scalpers coming from mainland China, where Apple toys are in short supply, buying up plenty of devices and then selling them on at a profit back in the People's Republic.
The dishevelled men and women queuing outside the Apple Store on Wednesday evening certainly didn’t look like the kind of trouble-making scalpers who were accused of ruining the big iPhone 4S launch in Beijing in January.
However they’re certainly persistent, according to an exasperated police officer who told The Reg they’d already been told to move on, but to no avail.
If they were black marketeers, Apple didn’t seem to be discouraging them much either, with one store official even coming out while we were there to show off the shiny new fondleslab to the assembled masses.
It remains to be seen whether on Friday morning we’ll see the group spring into action and assault iPad customers coming out of the store with offers to buy their new toy for inflated sums of cash.
According to a Chicago Tribune story on Wednesday, the black market in iPhones has actually significantly diminished in China now that the device is relatively easy to get hold of.
However, with Apple still not confirming a release date for the new iPad in the country as yet, it's pretty certain that scalpers will be sniffing around in Hong Kong and Macau for some time to come. ®
COMMENTS
Up the price
With that kind of customers, I'm not sure why apple won't use a different pricing policy. They could sell the ipads for 3 times their price the first week and only move down to the regular price on the 2nd week (or month, they have a whole division dedicated to optimizing this kind of thing).
A fool and their money are soon parted. Jack up the price Apple you have the market cornered on morons who cannot manage their finances correctly, scalp them, they deserve exploitation.
Dont' Ask Why
When one day a few years from now you find yourself lying in polyester sheets soaked with your own eniru, please don't ask why you have no visitors.
Say what?
Dear El Reg
You do know, do you not, that the Notice in the photo is way across the bleeding road from the Apple store in the background, at a location where no-one has EVER queued except when waiting for the lights to change?
Someone has been having a laugh.
You're welcome.
Re: Up the price
Yes that was my first thought as well... the iPad is so cheap already why not triple the price.
