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Smugglers forced to cut prices as iPhone 6 disappoints [Mercury, The (South Africa)](Mercury, The (South Africa) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) THE iPhone 6 has so underwhelmed consumers that even smugglers who illegally shipped them to China are having to slash their prices. Criminal gangs who queued up for days in the US and Hong Kong to get the Apple devices have been forced to charge less than half because of falling demand. Users in China now see the iPhone as just another smartphone and not the special product that it once was. The New York Times reported that smugglers had been shipping devices to China because they would not go on sale there for a few weeks and they were already out elsewhere. In the past that meant they could sell them for far higher prices than normal because consumers wanted to be the first to get them. But at one electronics market in Beijing, a retailer was selling the iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus for between the equivalent of $1 060 (R11 891) and $1 436. Just after the phones came out they were selling on the Chinese black market for $1 960 and $2 450 each, so they have declined 54 percent and 58 percent, respectively. Legitimate retailers are selling the iPhone 6 at a starting price of $649 and 6 Plus for $499. A seller in Beijing's tech hub Zhongguancun said: "Stocks of the iPhone 6 are way too high right now." When prices were good smugglers could expect to make around $£ profit per device but now one iPhone seller said that his losses would be "big". - Daily Mail The Mercury (c) 2014 Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited. All rights strictly reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |