Chinese buyers in Tokyo lead charge in iPhone 6 global debut

I walked past the Apple store in my town yesterday. People were lined up four blocks deep. They all looked chinese to me.

It comes as no surprise that they are buying the phones to resell them back in PRC. Get a job.

“It’s a very unique phone,” said Kim what 5.5inch screen with rounded edges, only thing unique I can think of is the price

'Unique'?? It's 2010 technology. Japan, PLEASE, take Apple on, your phones are far better! The Sharp Aquos CRYSTAL x... for starters!

I'm trying to wrap my head around this...

Mainland Chinese buyers are probably jealous by now. At least they are contributing to Japan's tourism. Welcome.

Uk9393: the J-phones suck, and sales prove it. But to each their own.

Hidingout: "they all looked Chinese to me".

Didn't know thy he a look. What is it, pres tel? And what do Japanese look like? As for buying the max 2 to sell one or both back home, what's it to you? You're saying this in 'the land of the middle-man', keep in mind.

@Smith, if they did 'suck' they'd be the ONLY phones selling, dear.

I worked for Apple during the iPad 2 launch, and still maintain close contact with my old coworkers. The people coming from China to buy on launch days and several days after pre-launch are all resellers. The same people would come and wait in line every day, buy all their phones out of contract (unusual in the US), and would demand that you not open the product. They're not innocent, good old-fashioned fans of Apple products. They're their to get a product and turn it for a profit back home.

Thank goodness for other manufacturers for popularizing the large phones. It helped smooth the path of the larger iPhones.

IPhones are a powerful engine that are moving hundreds of millions of dollar, if not billions, in the secondary market. Take my friend Clayton: he opened a small smartphone accessories store three years ago, in the first three months he saw that the real money is on iPhones, so he got rid of the other brands and is now a dedicated unofficial reseller of iPhones, brand-new and second-hand. Now he flies to Miami every month to bring back at least 15 iPhones 5S, he takes older models as a front pay, all the way to 4S, and resells them too with a large profit margin. Like him, there are at least other 5 other businesses dedicate solely to Apple, not to mention the authorized representative shop in the city of 400 thousand inhabitants where I live now in Brazil. So, no wonder people of every nationality where iPhones are not immediately available travel to other countries to buy and resell them. There's a rich and huge gray market out there.

smithinjapan, Japanese news also says many Chinese buyers are lining for the phone.

InJapan, The Sony XPERIA Z2 is selling like hotcakes. They designed better than other plastic competitors. The XPERIA Z3 and the HTC ONE X are the only current non-apple competitor that's good looking.

I commend any Chinese who would come here and buy anything to try to make a profit. Isn't that good 'ol USA capitalism at its finest? Nary a commune in sight.

And SONY stuff looks good to me too. XPERIA Z2.

I walked past the Apple store in my town yesterday. People were lined up four blocks deep. They all looked chinese to me.

It comes as no surprise that they are buying the phones to resell them back in PRC. Get a job.

@hidingout - So what if Chinese buyers are buying Chinese made phones to sell in China? Maybe you should be thankful that they are spending tourist dollars in Japan.

Hey, if people want to pay ludicrous prices for outdated technology, then let them.

BTW, if you have a i5, you might want to hold off installing iOS8 until the battery eating bugs are worked out.

The thing that gets me are the number of people griping about these Apple product launches. Why do you care if people line up for them... why would it bother you? You poor things.... you have to see the Headlines...don't read them. If you're the type of person to resent the success of others then you're probably a narcissist.

Sony products may look good, but are they good inside? Before I got an iphone, I had a Sony Galapagos phone. It seems it contained a lot of Sony-written software. The predictive typing was useless, not even as good as on a Nokia I bought second-hand in Thailand over ten years ago. It also contained a TV function that never worked. I am not surprised Sony are getting out of the phone business. There products may look nice, but in the UK people suggested that a kill switch was built in so that they died just after the guarantee expired. The big Japanese companies seem to have lost the plot. Korean and Chinese products are taking the market. (Apple may be an American company, but the products are manufactured in China.)

The telephones that sell in Japan are the ones sold through AU, Docomo and Softbank in the deals they offer. If there were true competition and phones were sold in a free market through retail outlets without being tied to phone companies, the Japanese phones would stand little chance against iphone, Korean and Taiwanese products at the high end or the newcomers, Chinese products selling for around 10,000 yen.

Japan's smartphones on the hardware are good. Their software however is a joke which is why many people prefer the simple iPhone.

In Australia too.

Something about the launch this year that has not been mentioned - the sheer number of homeless 'spotters' this time around. I work near the Ginza Apple Store and have been present at every launch day (albeit in passing), and this is the first time I've seen the homeless in groups spotting.

Now get this - it's a little hard to explain but bear with me! In the days leading up to the launch, they had their own place in the line, which was about 20m long, separated about 10m on each end by the beginning and end of the main line. In other words, they were kept at distance for obvious reasons.

So, I'm walking through Ginza on launch day and upon turning the corner at the Chanel building (about 100m from the Apple Store), there was an Apple Store employee offloading iPhones out the back of a nondescript van - to the homeless spotters! What I got from this was, they didn't want this part of their well-oiled PR machine on launch day, so they shuffled the homeless spotters around the corner & out of sight.

A small insight into the inner-workings of Apple at play here methinks!

@Mitch Cohen

@hidingout - So what if Chinese buyers are buying Chinese made phones to sell in China? Maybe you should be thankful that they are spending tourist dollars in Japan.

I don't think that's the point. The issue here is that many Chinese buyers (not just this particular crowd but ones who buy and resell New Year's fukubukuros and such) tend to create a big fuss. Some behave inappropriately and the crowd become a riot which is not welcome in Japanese society or anywhere. It's the fact many Chinese don't share the same manner and common sense with Japanese. No right or wrong, that's the fact. But what they do needs police's attention in Japan. I just saw on TV that they would leave a tarp and few chairs in the middle of the waiting line days before and show up in vans and vans of people who just cut in and pretend they had been there the whole time. This is far organized for just happy tourists visiting Japan.

My Chinese friend told me that there are Chinese community papers and social groups online Chinese students in Japan join where they look for gigs and jobs for quick cash. This is one of those gigs (and sure enough, many that were on TV camera looked college kids and one of them who answered the interview in Japanese said he resides in Japan.) And if you ever had someone with broken Japanese asking you to buy iTunes cards and hand him/her the serial code over LINE, that is that as well.

"Those Chinese... Coming over here, buying our iPhones!"

etc.

Chinese people in rage in the Apple store in Osaka because all of the iphone 6 got sold out like predicted. I am not surprise about this Chinese people even beat up Korean people for saying free Tibet and they even beat up the police for protecting the Koreans.

Talk about behind the times....I'm still using my Motorola Razor.

love my HTC One. hate the iPhone interface. it's like give me more buttons, damn it.

IPhone has Japan parts too, Screen Sharp, camera Sony, and also, as someone did all ready tear down on net of iPhone 6, some components are also from Toshiba, so, in some way , iPhone is at least 1/3 Japan product .

tinawatanabe: "smithinjapan, Japanese news also says many Chinese buyers are lining for the phone"

Yes, and if you read my comment I am fully aware of that, and asked hidingout first "So what?" when he pointed out that some are buying and reselling. It's not illegal, so who cares if many of them are buying two units to resell at least one. Second, since hidingout said, "They looked Chinese to me", I asked him what "Chinese looks like"? He seems to be one of those guys who thinks all Asians can be told apart by looks.

Yes, and if you read my comment I am fully aware of that, and asked hidingout first "So what?" when he pointed out that some are buying and reselling. It's not illegal, so who cares if many of them are buying two units to resell at least one. Second, since hidingout said, "They looked Chinese to me", I asked him what "Chinese looks like"? He seems to be one of those guys who thinks all Asians can be told apart by looks.

I'd love to respond, and tried to do so twice. Apparently I'm not allowed. Let me just say that my original post may have misled you to believe that I was judging based on appearance alone. Not so. I could hear and see large groups of Chinese shouting back and forth at each other up and down the line.

hidingout: " Let me just say that my original post may have misled you to believe that I was judging based on appearance alone. Not so. I could hear and see large groups of Chinese shouting back and forth at each other up and down the line."

Well, I generally don't say someone LOOKS like something or other based on what I hear, but there you go. In any case, it sounded somewhat derrogatory, as with many of the other posts, and had people I was talking with in person on the subject scowl and talk about how Chinese people were lined up for days (unlike Japanese, they thought). My other point, not only towards you, was that it doesn't matter what purpose they were buying it for so long as it's legal, which it was -- if they want to buy and resell, who cares? As long as they waited in line (did their time) they are entitled to buy up to two units and do with them as they please.

if they want to buy and resell, who cares?

Because they are obnoxious and disorderly, for one thing. Apple shop ran out of stock in Osaka and they practically caused a riot, occupying the store until the police came. If they minded their manners nobody would care that they are here. Their attitude is what makes they unwanted in Japan.

As for telling Chinese by their looks, they often dress differently, act different, and have hairstyles that differ from what is more common in Japan. I can usually tell a group of Chinese from a group of Japanese even if they don't speak a word.

Okay 0.1% foreigners, and the rest of 99.9% iSheeples are the local japanese who are buying the overpriced Crapple phones.

Those who somehow don't wanna believe Chinese are buying up those iPhones and reselling them (even if it's true, what's wrong? Ha ha ha), believe what you want. I walked by two of US Apple Stores in East Coast yesterday morning and almost 2/3 of people in line was Asian and Chinese language were spoken and heard everywhere. Just sayin'.

It is bizarre that Chinese people must go elsewhere to purchase a phone made in China.

@badsey3

It is bizarre that Chinese people must go elsewhere to purchase a phone made in China.

Apple had the stock ready, but were unable to get the all clear by the government before launch.

If there's any country which has taught tolerance and patience, Japan won't be far off from the top of the list. I will not bother to even remotely attempt to educate nor change certain group of people who will never respect nor understand the need to follow rules or orders.

The Apple new product launch is a very carefully crafted and planned event, to achieve full effect in advertising and profitability, let alone the share holders' returns. Apple fans however, made it festival in their mood and spirits, which is totally acceptable in all levels.

And in the free market, I don't think anyone of us wants more rules and constraints to our right to purchase or resell. The problem is really not the re-sellers, these group of people comes in all color, shapes and sizes and they are too motivated to adapt to any new curbs or restrictions.

However, Apple stores could still easily come out with couple of methods to at least keep the REAL customers happy, typically avoiding the Osaka Apple store incident. One way is to take note of all names of people in line and update them daily and no substitution is allowed for an individual queue position. This way, no shameless group could barge in by joining their "friends" on the very last day and causing all the unnecessary commotion. This will not deter re-selling, but it will sure make the playing ground a lot more level. If anyone were to start lining up a week before, I have no qualms in him/her buying the entitled sets.

@Gaijin Dilemma: I am sure Apple has thought of solutions. But let's be honest: why would a company that reached the status of ¨cult¨ avoid such a free PR? No matter what other envious company fans say, most people in line are true fans of Apple. No matter what logistics Apple could adopt, there would a line anyway. For there would have a day that stores would start selling new iPhone models. So, good manners is up to customers, it would be a joke if it was up to Apple to try to educate them. This imbroglio with the Chinese is China's govt fault. If they had licensed Apple months ago as other countries did, China would be among the first countries to get the new iPhone 6. Hope this is a lesson to them, in time for the release of the iPhone 8 some point in the next couple of years.