Reuters:
Hundreds of Russians braved the cold and rain to queue for days outside a Moscow phone store ahead of the release of the new Apple iPhones on Friday, but when the doors opened none stepped in to buy.
And:
Banking on strong enthusiasm for the phones, which have drawn days-long queues outside stores in Singapore, Sydney and elsewhere, the queue sellers set the price of the first place at 450,000 roubles ($7,000).
Basically, the queue sellers were banking on very limited stock. But:
The store manager called out ticket numbers to invite in the first buyers, but his calls went unanswered.
Eventually, ticket holder number 247 came to the door and Russian photographer Anatoly Doroshchenko, who had arrived that morning and didn’t pay for the right to queue-jump, became the first purchaser in Russia of one of the new phones.
I recall “professional queuers” in years past, when I stood in line for a new iPhone. Interesting turn of events!
Imagine that. The government of one of the most oppressive anti-democratic regiems protects consumers better than the US does.
Apple is way better at first day supply now, and even the iPhone X was fairly easy to get. They should have known the demand when pre-orders never fully sold out until launch.
Was it the government that arranged the ticketing for this, or Apple? The story didn’t provide that detail, and the video wouldn’t load for me.
It was the government rules is my impression.
It had absolutely zero to do with the government at all. Bunch of rip off idiots lined up, Apple handed out queue numbers like they do just about everywhere else, nobody was dumb enough to pay for a queue spot.