Core Group, the SA distributor of Apple products, has warned consumers not to buy grey-market imports of the company\u2019s iPhone cellular handset, saying there is a risk the product will be rendered nonfunctional the moment they connect it to the Internet.<\/p>\n
The warning comes amid reports that Apple still has no SA launch date for the popular smartphone which has captured the imagination of consumers in the US and Europe. \u201cFor now, there is no iPhone for SA,\u201d says Core Group executive director Rutger-Jan van Spaandonk<\/p>\n
The handset is available only in the US, the UK and Germany, with France to follow later this month.<\/p>\n
Van Spaandonk says consumers need to stay away from grey-market imports, which, he says, have been hacked so that they work on any cellphone network. He says the hacked handsets not only have their warranties voided but will also be \u201cbricked\u201d the moment they are connected to Apple\u2019s iTunes software. \u201cWe cannot support them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Consumer demand for the device has led to people importing the phones, hacking them and selling them for as much as four times the US retail price.<\/p>\n
Apple, which disinvested from SA several years ago, has been criticised in the past for ignoring emerging markets. The company\u2019s iTunes Music Store \u2014 an online digital download site \u2014 is still not available to SA consumers. \u201cThe market has to be big enough to sustain separate infrastructure,\u201d Van Spaandonk says.<\/p>\n