iPhone News Updated

China iPhone launch delay could boost sales for rivals during Chinese New Year holidays

When Apple launched its latest iPhone device in China earlier this month, chaotic scenes ensued. As a result, the company has withdrawn the smartphone from sale until further notice. This comes during the country’s busiest shopping period, just prior to its New Year holiday, giving rivals like Samsung a golden opportunity to boost sales of their own phones.

Imagine just prior to the holiday season supplies of Apple’s iPhone ran dry. You’d been hoping to treat yourself to the latest 4S device, or buy one for a friend or relative, but you can’t find the smartphone anywhere. Worse still, there’s no word when they might be returning to stores. If this happened, would you instead take a look at the competition? Examine some of the Android offerings, for example? Or would you just wait until Apple’s device returned to stores, even though it could be a couple of weeks before it happens, or even a month?

As a Bloomberg report points out, this is the dilemma facing shoppers in China just now after Apple’s launch of the 4S device in the country on January 13 descended into chaos, resulting in the company withdrawing the popular smartphone from sale until further notice. And yes, right now China is in the midst of its pre-holiday shopping rush. Their one-week holiday begins on January 23, and so Apple will have lost many sales by removing the 4S from its shelves. Even its online store has sold out. The phone can still be picked up from China Unicom and authorised resellers, but supplies are scarce.

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iPhone launch doesn’t break the stratosphere

Tech company Apple is not alone in finding the Chinese market’s zeal for its iPhone 4S surprising.

Since the device’s launch was canceled at retail stores, fans dying to snatch up the phone in the face of scarce supply are also finding it hard to differentiate the new hot product from the earlier generation iPhone 4.

“I don’t feel the new handset is much faster in running applications than the iPhone 4 or sense any other significantly improved experience,” said an avid 25-year-old Apple fan, Zheng Jin.

“Moreover, it looks and weighs exactly like the iPhone 4.”

Dubbing it “the most amazing iPhone yet”, Apple’s website said the iPhone 4S dual-core chip delivers more power than iPhone 4 and its new operating system, IOS 5, is the easiest to use.

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