Chinese scalpers are feeling the squeeze. Seven years ago, a
generation of them struck it rich by reselling the iPhone 4 for as much as RMB
10,000 (around $1,500 for a phone that launched for up to $699) to Apple
fanatics and curious consumers. One day after iPhone 8 hit the shelves in China
last week, scalpers were offering the 4.7-inch gold model for RMB 500 ($75)
cheaper than the shelf price.
“It’s the first time this has happened, that the [scalper]
price slipped below the launch price within one day,” a scalper from Beijing’s
tech hub Zhongguancun told local media (in Chinese).
In stark contrast to the swarm of buyers and scalpers
outside Apple Stores in the past, the queuing railings set aside for iPhone 8
launch across China are far from being filled. The tepid reception of the new
model has sent Apple’s stock down the worst weekly performance during the week
of a major product launch since the first iPhone release in 2007.
Apple has not published any official sales figure on iPhone
8 yet, but a survey done by Tencent’s research unit Penguin Intelligence
predicted the cold shoulders. Only 16% of existing iPhone users are planning to
replace their phones, down 27.8% year-on-year. A similar trend is observed
among Android users, signaling the calm-down of China’s smartphone crave.
Analysts are split in their projection for iPhone X. Some
are hopeful that the arrival of the premium-tier phone will pick up the slack
left by iPhone 8. Others caution iPhone X’s high price tag—almost doubling
China’s average monthly salary. Local smartphone brands, which are on average
more affordable than iPhones, are also going strong. Domestic smartphone makers
are gobbling up 87% of China’s smartphone shipments in Q2 2017. Xiaomi overtook
Apple’s fourth place in that same period.
Scalpers are suffering from slumping demand also because
China has become one of the first in Asia to receive the new iPhones in store.
“The era for scalpers has gone,” says the Zhongguancun scalper.
