The release of Apple’s newest smartphone, the iPhone 4S, in China hit a snag in Beijing when concerns over the crowd that had gathered caused the flagship store to cancel the event. As Elizabeth Flock reported, many did not take the announcement well:
The release of a new iPhone or other Apple product in America has always been accompanied by some level of mania. But angry customers and scalpers in Beijing took it to another level Friday, yelling at employees and hurling eggs at China’s flagship Apple store, the Associated Press reports.
The customers reacted after police announced the China launch of the iPhone 4S was canceled over concerns about the size of the crowd. Many of the customers had camped outside the store overnight.
It’s not the first such incident involving Apple in China. A similar scuffle broke out at an Apple store in Beijing in May last year when China received its first batch of iPad 2s. After a scalper cut in line, a fight injured four and shattered a glass door.
And on Jan. 3, employees of China-based Apple product manufacturer Foxconn threatened mass suicide after the company announced layoffs, employee transfers, and a change in severance pay, Forbes reports. Somewhere between 80 and 200 workers stood on the roof of their dormitory in Wuhan and threatened to jump, according to the Guardian.
The workers were manufacturing Xboxes, not Apple products, but the incident echoed Apple’s previous struggles with the manufacturer.
In May 2010, a spate of suicides among Foxconn workers forced Apple, HP and Dell to launch an investigation. In May 2011, Foxconn was accused of making its workers sign no-suicide contracts, and Apple issued a statement promising to improve the lives of Foxconn workers.
The mass suicide was averted after Foxconn met some of the worker’s demands, but the PR damage had already been done.
While the iPhone 4S is still making news worldwide, Apple is preparing for another iteration of the iPhone, and some analysts are looking for the iPhone 5 to be a significant upgrade from the 4S. As Heather Perlberg explained:
Apple Inc. may use new touch-panel technology for an iPhone 5 with a thinner body than previous models and might introduce the product in the quarter ending in June, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said.
The Cupertino, California-based company’s is also considering new casing materials for the iPhone, its best- selling product, according to Huberty, who has an “overweight” rating on Apple.
The new iPhone may use Qualcomm Inc.’s quad mode chip with the capability to run on all 3G and long-term evolution networks, Huberty said. With a thinner body and the Qualcomm chip, the next iPhone may represent more of a change than the 4S model introduced last year as users look to upgrade.
Apple and its supply chain are “surprised by the demand for the iPhone 4S, which increases confidence in strong sales for iPhone 5 later this year,” Huberty said in the report.
Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos., said in a research note on Jan. 11 that most iPhone users, according to his survey work, were looking to purchase a new model, and that with a different design, an iPhone 5 could be “a monster upgrade.” Munster also has an “overweight” rating on Apple.
