Scuffles broke out outside Apple’s flagship store here as thousands of Chinese lined up to purchase the hotly anticipated iPhone 4,prompting its dealer to close online bookings.
Some would-be buyers waited all night during the weekend to get a chance to buy the equipment. A few anxious people lost their cool,causing police to be called to the store in Sanlitun Village,official media reported today.
It was the first time that the fourth version of the popular handset has been officially available on the Chinese mainland.
Meanwhile China Unicom,which is the sole distributor of the new Iphone said its pre-orders exceeded to two lakhs since the phone went on sale last Saturday prompting it to close the online booking.
So far about 60,000 sets have been sold.
The rush for Iphone-4 was special compared to iPhone 3GS handsets,which took six weeks to sell a lakh in 2009.
In addition,recent reports from US said that overseas Chinese are buying the sets in different part of America and smuggling them back to China where they were sold on black.
The iPhone 4,which was launched in the US and UK in June,costs 4,999 yuan (USD 750) for the 16 GB model and 5,999 yuan (USD 900) for the 32 GB version.
Its latest features include a five mega-pixel camera,FaceTime video chat software and a brand-new operating system.
Wireless Internet,a feature previously unavailable in China on the 3G phone,is also available on the new models.