ANGRY CHINESE shoppers threw eggs at the flagship Apple store in Beijing and jostled police after they were told the shop would not begin selling the iPhone 4S because of concerns about the size of the crowd.
Later, Apple said it would stop retail sales of the latest iPhone in China for the time being, but said the phones would be available online, through its partner carrier China Unicom or at official Apple resellers.
Because of various regulatory issues, the iPhone came late to China but Chinese consumers have taken the smartphone, and other slick Apple products like Macintosh computers and the iPad tablet, to their hearts. Apple sold 5.6 million iPhones in China in the first nine months of last year.
It is freezing cold in Beijing right now, with temperatures nine below zero, but that did not stop hundreds of would-be buyers thronging the plaza outside the shop from the night before to get their hands on one of the phones.
Some of those queuing were scalpers who buy the phones and sell them on at a mark-up.
When an Apple rep with a megaphone told the crowd at 7am that the phones would not go on sale as planned, all hell broke loose and people started chanting “Liars” and demanding that staff open the doors.
Shoppers scuffled with police and one man brought eggs that he then threw at the shop.
China is Apple’s fastest-growing market. Sales in China rose more than fourfold to €10.2 billion last year from €2.35 billion the year earlier.
The Apple store in Beijing is nearly always full, often with long queues outside. Apple’s Chinese stores are the busiest and best-earning in the world.
“The demand for iPhone 4S has been incredible and our stores in China have already sold out,” Apple said in a statement.
The new iPhone has various features, including voice recognition functions. It was introduced in China and 21 other countries on Friday and other Apple shops around Beijing sold out within hours.
“Unfortunately, we were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, the iPhone will not be available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being,” Apple said.
In May, the Sanlitun store was shut for a couple of hours after a scuffle during the launch of the iPad 2 and the white iPhone 4.
The shop is located at an exclusive downtown shopping mall in the Sanlitun district. Most of the crowd had dispersed by 10am, but there were still a number of police officers there by the evening.