WINDHOEK – Police in the USA and Australia broke up fistfights among the dedicated legions of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus adherents who camped for days at Apple stores to buy the limited number of phones available, during the first day of sales of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 on 19 September.
The fights were between buyers wanting one phone and buyers said to be stocking up the new cellphones to re-sell at high prices on the black market in other countries where the iPhone 6 would only launch in months to come.
Amid the fistfights were the protestors, also at the Apple stores, who gathered to publicly condemn bad working conditions for the industry’s service workers, claiming workers who clean, guard, cook and maintain Silicon Valley tech campuses are living in near poverty from low wages and no benefits.
The demonstrators also accused Apple of sourcing iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus components from Asian suppliers who use sweat shops and cheap labour factories, some of which uses child labour, all to bolster Apple’s profits from the much sought-after gadget.
However, amid all the drama Apple has been raking in profits from the winding queues of people in Europe, Australia and USA, who collectively bought more than 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units of the phone since the phones went on the shelves on 19 September.
Apple received four million orders when the new phone launched publicly, an announcement that came weeks ahead of the phones being available in stores.
Yet the unique circumstances surrounding this year’s launch have created a small cottage industry for iPhone resellers and according to Bloomberg, tensions are running high. The publication on Monday reported fistfights that broke out between two groups of organized iPhone flippers at a Connecticut Apple Store.
Local police said more than a dozen people from two rival New York operations came to blows over a spot in the line, leading to the arrest of three individuals.
Those involved in the altercation planned to buy the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, then resell the smartphones to customers in China, said New Haven Police Department spokesman David Hartman.
“It’s our understanding that the mark-up on these phones when they’re resold in China can be upwards of 300 percent,” Hartman said.
There were also unconfirmed reports over the weekend describing identical scenes in Australia, New York and other major metropolitan areas.
On Saturday, filmmaker Casey Neistat posted on YouTube a video documenting the scene outside a New York Apple store on the eve of launch. In the short film, a large number of line waiters — including the first woman in line — were seen purchasing two off-contract iPhones in all-cash transactions, only to immediately hand them over to an unknown figure outside the store. Later shots showed these intermediaries carrying satchels full of iPhone 6 units presumably bound for resale on the grey market.