“In China, Apple products are hot. Long lines of eager customers and swarms of lurking scalpers are typical each time Apple launches a new product,” Jo Ling Kent reports for CNN. “The release of the iPad 2 and white iPhone 4 last weekend was no exception. However, sales on Saturday hit a speed bump when foreign Apple employees and Chinese customers were caught in a scuffle outside one of Apple’s Beijing stores.”
“According to witnesses, a Chinese man thought to be a scalper — a buyer who makes multiple purchases to resell at higher prices — tried three times to cut into a long line of customers waiting to buy the newly-released white iPhone 4 in Beijing,” Kent reports. “Three Apple security guards and an Apple manager attempted to escort the individual away from the store. Two of the employees were foreigners.”
Kent reports, “The store, which is located in Beijing’s high-end Sanlitun Village shopping and dining center, was closed to the public on Saturday afternoon for repairs… ‘The Apple store in Sanlitun closed for several hours on Saturday after a group outside the store became unruly. The store team acted to protect themselves and our customers by closing the doors and preventing the group from entering. The safety of our customers and employees is our top priority,’ Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu told CNN. Local police declined to comment on the situation. By Sunday, Apple resumed normal business hours.”
“Despite only having four retail stores in China, Apple dominates the tablet market in China, harnessing more than three-quarters of the market, according to analysts,” Kent reports. “When the first edition of the iPad launched in September, customers in Beijing camped out for more than 65 hours to be among the first to purchase the tablet.”
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Ye Xin reports for The People’s Daily, “The Chaoyang police claimed that they received a report about a fight that had broken out at Sanlitun Apple Store at 3:10 p.m. on May 7. Police officers rushed to the spot and found after a preliminary investigation that the attacker was a foreigner as well as the head of the Apple Store. As for the fighting, the foreigner laid the blame on scalpers and those people who had jumped the queue.”
“After questioning the witnesses and watching the surveillance video, police officers affirmed that there were people jumping the queue at the spot. However, they said they can not affirm whether the beaten man is a scalper or not,” Xin reports. “Police officers reported recently that a settlement has been reached through mediation in the case of a foreign Apple employee who allegedly beat a customer in front of the Sanlitun Village Apple Store in Beijing as customers lined up for the release of the iPad 2. In addition, the police said the man was not injured seriously. The foreigner and the injured man came to an agreement after mediation. [Terms of the mediation were not disclosed.]”
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MacDailyNews Take: Somebody tried to cut in line ahead of us at an Apple product launch once. Once.