Where does your pre-launch iPhone 6 come from?
A number of online retailers in South Africa are already offering pre-orders on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, promising delivery dates of end September to end October 2014.
This is despite the fact that the new iPhone only launched on Friday, 19 September 2014 in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, and the UK.
Another 20 countries will start offering the devices on 26 September: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates.
China, along with South Africa, is not included in the list of these initial launch countries, and according to film-maker Casey Neistat this was evident at this year’s iPhone launch queues in New York city.
Gone are the days of excited fans sitting outside the store for hours ahead of the launch to get their hands on a device.
According to Neistat, the lines are now dominated by those who started queuing days beforehand and who only seem to be interested in reselling the devices.
The video depicts how phones are bought two-by-two with cash, and then resold outside the store to another party.
It also shows a scene where the New York police tell the people queuing that they may not sleep on the sidewalk, followed by the arrest of a wailing woman.
Meanwhile… in Perth
Elsewhere in the world the prevalence of iPhone 6 resellers does not seem to be as high as in New York city. However, one new iPhone 6 owner almost had a disheartening incident of his own on Australia’s Channel 9 news:
More iPhone 6 news
What you can get instead of an R18,000 iPhone 6 Plus pre-order
iPhone 6 pre-order prices in South Africa
iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus launch in SA: what to expect
Surprising top smartphone stats in South Africa
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