I saw another video by a news crew walking the entire 15 block Soho line from beginning to end and it was not homogenous Asian as this implied; it was multi-ethnic. And Apple, as a matter of company policy, turned away the majority of those cherry picked in the video who were not buying for personal use.
On Monday, fourth day of sale, I was in line with my girlfriend for her iPhone 6 at the Sacramento ArdenFair store—I got mine Friday morning—and three Asians got in line wanting to reserve four unlocked iPhone 6 each. . . and were summarily told by the Apple concierge taking line reservations, “No, it is against policy. We will not sell unlocked iPhones.” They conferred and then announced they wanted to buy four T-Mobile iPhone 6 each and were again denied on the basis they appeared to be straw purchases for resale.
I talked with the concierge about this and she said they’ve been turning straw purchasers away at all Apple stores since the phones went on sale. Apple has to make every effort to do show they were doing this or they faced severe difficulty with the Chinese regulators ultimately approving sales in China. . . ergo, the company wide policy: no unlocked iPhone 6es, and no iPhone 6 leaves the stores unattached to a U.S. carrier. So, RegulatorCountry, exactly how were these straw sales accomplished in such large numbers as you and the FUD spreaders claim?
Incidentally, I was by the Arden Fair store yesterday. . . and there is STILL a line up to buy iPhone 6es. . . weeks later. That’s true at every Apple Store. Apple is now over 22 million sold and 5 million pre-orders in China. . . at regular retail, not scalped prices, for delivery starting on October 17. When Apple got final approval for sale in China and started taking pre-orders, they released the unlocked iPhones for sale in the US and began shipping.