beyondbrics

If you thought the new iPhone 4 was expensive in London, try buying one in China. The phone has yet to be released there – but unlocked handsets are being sold on the grey market for as much as $2,000, according to MIC Gadget, a China-related gadget blog.The blog (citing a report in the Oriental Morning Post) says that most of the phones being sold are UK handsets – presumably bought from the Apple store on Regent Street or online, and then shipped over to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Of course, the retailers do not only choose to sell the UK unlocked iPhone 4, they also import those US locked models. Customers could get those (16GB) at almost half the price, $7000-8000 yuan (about $1000-1200). Sadly, those phones could not be used at the moment, until there’s a software tool which can jailbreak and unlock the iPhone 4.

So, a phone you can use for $2,000, or one you can’t for $1200. Clearly the iReligion has an audience in China.

But there are two major ironies here: Firstly, the iPhone 4 is due out in Hong Kong’s Apple store in just 11 days time – where the price will, you’d have thought, be more in line with the UK price ($760-$900).

Perhaps even stranger is the fact that all these iPhones, whether imported from the UK or the US, are made in Shenzhen.

Made in China. Bought in London. Sold in Hong Kong. And all for the tidy sum of $2,000. The Shanghaiist put it nicely.

If you’re that desperate to own one of these gadgets, I’m guessing you probably don’t want to wait any minute longer to turn it on and make a call. But is doing so really worth 12,000RMB? Macnerds are crazy.

Of course, with this being China, there is another, thrifty option. A fake iPhone 4 will set you back just $100.

Related:

Apple – In depth