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Housewives On Trial In China For Smuggling In iPhones

Posted by timothy on from the random-headline-generator dept.

Quillem writes "Last year, Hong Kong residents were finding it hard to get their hands on the latest Apple iGadget even though supply was plentiful. An investigation revealed that most of the iPhones and iPads that made it into HK were being smuggled sans import duties into mainland China—where the devices were yet to be released—by housewives who were paid around USD 6 per smuggled gadget. Earlier this week, 25 of the suspected smugglers went on trial in Shenzhen city."

17 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    How do you smuggle in crap made in your country?

    1. Re:Eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      These are Apple phones we're talking about.

      They'd be taking 'em up the ass, just like every other Apple customer.

    2. Re:Eh? by drkim · · Score: 2, Funny

      In their vagina's.

      Perhaps you mean "iGina's® "
      (Be careful, Apple just filed the patent on these: U.S. Pat.# 15198489 "...any indentation, pocket, cave, invagination, hole, inclusion, or concavity, made of any material, or found in any location, on any object, location, person or animal, whether produced by natural process including, but not limited to, erosion, evolution, tectonic movement, and/or by any artificial means, additive or subtractive manufacturing, fabrication, machining...")

    3. Re:Eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      The way your dad looked at it, this watch was your birthright. He'd be damned if any slopes gonna put their greasy yellow hands on his boy's birthright, so he hid it, in the one place he knew he could hide something: his ass. Five long years, he wore this iphone up his ass. Then when he died of dysentery, he gave me the iphone. I hid this uncomfortable piece of glass and aluminium up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the iphone to you.

    4. Re:Eh? by JustOK · · Score: 3, Funny

      with rounded corners

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
  2. What's that I smell? by Eyeball97 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ah, roast scapegoat...

    Talk about clickbait headlines... tfa says it's an $80,000,000 smuggling ring that's been busted...

    This isn't some little old ladies smuggling a few iPhones in their suitcase for the price of a meal...

  3. Another Fluff Peice by tuppe666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously I can't help feeling like Apple propaganda is kind of sad now they are irrelevant. The iPhone is a failure in China and in current news its market share [as everywhere] is dropping YOY [its irrelevant] from 5.8% and by quarter from 6.0 down to 4.2 unlike Android which has gone YOY 46.8% and by quarter 82.8% to 90.1%...Android is outselling Apple 21:1

    1. Re:Another Fluff Peice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Aren't the facts rather that yes, Android is on most cheaper smartphones, hence they sell a lot in total, but Apple still has a good grip (and profitability) on the high end market.
      I think you can compare Apple to a car manufacturer like BMW. Generally well designed and made, often pointing the way forward, indeed relatively small compared to a mass maker like Toyota yet financially healthy.

    2. Re:Another Fluff Peice by tuppe666 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think you can compare Apple to a car manufacturer like BMW.

      Enough with the marketing crap. Android phones at the at an average price of 1293 yuan are about $236 you get an Android Phone that has measurably better hardware than an iPhone for that money and subjectively better software [I would say years ahead]. Maybe you should pick on of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_automobile_manufacturers_of_the_United_States

    3. Re:Another Fluff Peice by iamhassi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The iPhone is a failure in China and in current news its market share [as everywhere] is dropping YOY [its irrelevant

      A lot of things are failures in China. Google is a failure in China. Facebook is a failure in China. Does this mean google and Facebook are irrelevant too? If you did world wide market share of social media or search engines I bet you'd discover that whatever is popular in China ends up having the most market share because china has almost 5x more people than the US

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    4. Re:Another Fluff Peice by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      Android is replacing Symbian, not iPhone. Really, look at the numbers. In China, people wish for an iPhone, but settle for an Android. That could hurt them eventually, but not now.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:Another Fluff Peice by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

      Android is replacing Symbian, not iPhone. Really, look at the numbers. In China, people wish for an iPhone, but settle for an Android. That could hurt them eventually, but not now.

      Your absolutely right Apple was never a success in China. Its simply more of failure now. Can we stop the bullshit that people wish for an iPhone, people are choosing Android over Apple worldwide at 5:1, with 70% of sales vs Apples 15%. Apple simply is irrelevant to the smartphone market.

    6. Re:Another Fluff Peice by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 2

      Apple propaganda is kind of sad now they are irrelevant.

      A half trillion dollar global company with consistent double digit annual growth irrelevant? A single company with 17% global smart phone market share (surpassed only by Samsung) irrelevant? A single company with 50% of global tablet market share irrelevant?

      From a business standpoint they are certainly relevant. Maybe you mean nobody pays attention to Apple? Is that why every /. story about Microsoft, Google, Android and many other unrelated topics has people posting about Apple? I guess the press never writes about Apple? Oh, wait. They write about them almost daily.

      Die hard Apple haters are like Fox News talking about Republicans' 2012 electoral mandate. The disconnect from reality is what is really sad.

    7. Re:Another Fluff Peice by wvmarle · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Come on. Not to defend Apple as such, but how can you call being outsold 1:5 a failure when you have one single model competing with hundreds of other models? When you compare model to model I wouldn't be surprised iPhone is the nr 1 selling phone model at a distance. Samsung is the only one that may rival them, they have some really well selling models. And in the Android world there are new models available almost every single day, while Apple has a new model maybe once a year.

      In China it's even more so. When it comes to mobile phones, the US market is highly controlled and restricted, the China market is open. Yes, you heard that correctly: communist China's market is much more open than capitalist US's market. In China, like most of the rest of the world outside the US, you buy a phone, and then you buy a subscription to a network. They don't come bundled. So it's much easier for newcomers to put a model on the market - they don't need to care about having a carrier's blessing. This results in immense competition, pushing down prices.

      And because no-one other than Apple can use iOS on their phones, they all opt for the Android option. Many would likely want iOS if it were available. Many would possibly even use Microsoft's offering if it were as cheap and customisable as Android.

  4. Re:I've learned this the hard way... by tuppe666 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Most are not able to afford the iPhone, hence the high percentage of Android users over there.

    What a load of crap The Android phones in question are selling at an average of 1293 yuan that is about $236 and you can get a really good Android phone for that. If Apple have chosen to price themselves out of the market, that is their choice. In the short term it might look great for profits, but as we can see they are irrelevant in China.

  5. Re:I've learned this the hard way... by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2

    Please try to believe me when I say this, but the iPhone is a must-have gadget in China.

    The hipster phone in China right now is the Galaxy Note/Note2. You see them everywhere.

      iPhones are for old people.

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  6. Re:All Chinese Android phones are new :) by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

    No I am saying that people buy what they can afford. Not all Chinese can afford the 1300 yuan devices.if 1300 is the average then there are phones that are far cheaper. These cheaper phones won't have comparable features.

    A quick look at the best selling Android phones on Amazon china http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.cn%2F show the three most popular Android devices to be ZTE U930 at 926 yuan; Huawei Ascend G330C and 966 yuan; and Samsun Gaxaxy III at 3,729 yuan, which is what you would expect for an average of 1300. The under 1000 phones, both come with dual-core processors 4.0 and 4.3 inch IPS creens and Ice cream sandwich...I assume you are familiar with the SIII :)

    I find it astonishing that you have tried to refute my posts without one single shed of evidence that backs your fairytale view of china. When the internet makes it so simple to check facts. Please don't continue to shame yourself, and do the modicum of research first.