Three days have passed since the launch and the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iphone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales have hit the 10 Million mark. Customers are waiting in anticipation to get their hands on the new iPhone as soon as possible, and this same demand is present in China. But wait! The iPhone 6 has been launched in 10 regions and China isn’t one of them. Instead of Apple, the Black Market is catering to the demand created so carefully by the Apple marketing team.
Apple wasn’t granted network access in China and if this continues for long, the black market may bloom to such a degree where demand may soon start to fade away in China – bad news for official iPhone sales. Strategy Analytics have sufficient market analysis data to state that 5% of the total demand in China will be met by the Black Market. Impatient fans are ready to pay three times more than the original price for the new iPhones.
The diverse effects of any Black Market are well known; if this practice continues and phones from other markets are brought into China, it would upset the supply and demand equation and bring down the prices, which would hurt the official Apple outlets selling at a higher price. Another well known fact is the arrival of knock offs due to a flourishing black market, which will hurt Apple even more as China is famous for its counterfeit market all over the world.
If the customers are kept waiting for Apple Inc.’s latest iPhone and the official channel is not granted access in China the Black Market prices could spike higher, which could potentially derange the customers from the brand altogether. People holding off purchasing a new phone, and not being able to afford buying it on the Black Market, might finally decide to go for an Android if the legal channel is not cleared for Apple soon enough.
Currently in China Apple faces competition from Lenovo, who is the best Android phone seller in China otherwise known for its computers in the rest of the world. Samsung is another strong competitor and on the local front Huawei and Xiaomi are worth mentioning. These competitors are of course also affected by the Apple Black Market but when asked for comment, Angela Lee, the Lenovo publicist refuse to say anything.
The biggest and most important factor is that the Black Market is eating into the demand for the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 6 and the sales figure, which is expected from China, could turn out to be less than expected as more and more time passes. When asked for comment on this issue, Carolyn Wu who is Apple Chinas spokesperson did not respond, which basically means there is no good news on the Apple front.
The markets all around China started selling the iPhone last Friday. One cannot help but wonder at this point if the delay was deliberate; the possibility of some influential party’s involvement can also be considered her. Apple may want to look more closely into the matter.
