As expected, queues for the newest Apple iPhones, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, formed in many locations in Singapore as early as yesterday morning (Sept 15) ahead of sales today. However, media reports show that many people in the queues were buying the phones not for themselves.
The Straits Times (ST) reported that the first person in the queue at Courts Orchard, a 25-year-old student from Nanyang Institute of Management, was there with nine other students from the same school. They were there to buy the phones for a friend, who wanted to “send them to his family in Vietnam”.
Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reported that, over at City Square Mall, a 26-year-old university student studying in Vietnam started queuing at 10am yesterday morning. The woman flew to Singapore specifically for the phone, which she plans to sell in Vietnam as it “can be resold for at least S$3,000”.
She claimed that the queue at City Square Mall started as early as 6am on Thursday morning.
AsiaOne, Reuters, The Straits Times, AFP
CNA reported that there were about 25 people in a queue outside Nex Mall in Serangoon at about midnight on Friday. A man in the queue admitted that he plans to resell the phone as “right now, I can get about $2,100 for the new iPhone 7”. He said he’ll buy one for himself later, from a telecoms operator here.
ST reported that the second person in line at 313 Somerset was a 60-year-old housewife who was queuing to buy an iPhone 7 Plus in black for her son. The phone, however, is for a foreign customer of her 40-year-old construction manager son.
Many foreigners were also spotted in the various queues.
ST said that at 8am today at Courts Orchard, “most of the 30 people in line were foreigners”, including two from India, who was here for a holiday. At 9am, about 300 were in the queue at 313@Somerset, “including many foreigners”.
The newspaper also spoke to a 27-year-old entrepreneur from Indonesia in the queue at Ion Orchard. The man, who is in Singapore for vacation, had to settle for a phone in a colour not of his choice. “I will probably sell the phone later to get the phone in the colour I want,” he said.
CNA said that when it arrived at 313@Somerset on Thursday night, at about 11pm, more than 60 people were in line. “Some had arrived from overseas, and brought their luggage along with them,” it reported.
In the queue was a 23-year-old Penn State University student from Thailand, who said he came to Singapore to buy the phone as there is usually a “one- or two-month delay in Thailand”.
sinsh@sph.com.sg
Reuters, AFP
