Apple stores sales ban boosts rival outlets

China Daily:

China Unicom, the country’s second-largest telecom operator by subscriber numbers, said it has large stocks of Apple Inc’s iPhone 4S handsets available for purchase.That’s despite Apple’s Chinese stores halting supplies of the device and scalpers charging a markup of as much as 1,000 yuan ($158) for each handset.Apple announced on Friday that the iPhone 4S will not be available in stores in Beijing and Shanghai “for the time being”, after angry shoppers pelted the company’s store in the capital’s upmarket Sanlitun area with eggs and quarrels broke out between scalpers and security guards.