20 iPhone 6s confiscated from grey market trader in Vietnam
20 iPhone 6s confiscated from grey market trader in Vietnam
Ten days after their unofficial arrival in Vietnam, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus still attract media attention in the Southeast Asian country the way the traders who brought the devices from other markets, where the handsets were officially released earlier this month, did not expect them to be.
While traders of Apple’s latest smartphones in Vietnam are reportedly cutting their ask prices for the handsets on an hourly basis, the market watchdog in Hanoi on Sunday confiscated 20 iPhone 6s from a member of the ‘black market,’ where traders sell the unofficially released devices at exorbitant prices.
Hoang Ba Thuc told market surveillance officers that he had bought the iPhone 6s from Ho Chi Minh City, and had the handsets delivered via express mail to sell in the capital city.
The smartphones are worth more than VND500 million (roughly US$23,500), Nguyen Dang Khoa, head of the Hanoi market surveillance team, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday.
Khoa said his officers checked the batch of the iPhone 6s when Thuc was receiving it in Tay Ho District on Sunday afternoon, following a tip-off from local residents.
“The owner of the devices failed to present any papers and receipts that could prove their origin,” Khoa said. “So we booked the case and seized all of the smartphones for investigation.”
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were officially released on September 19 in ten markets, and were immediately available in Vietnam the same day, thanks to Vietnamese traders who joined the queues in Singapore or Hong Kong to buy the devices and brought them back to their home country.
During the first three days since their Vietnam arrival, the handsets were selling for $1,550-3,300 each, depending on the model and storage capacity, with sellers believing that customers would be willing to open their pockets due to the product scarcity.
But a week later, the price of a 16GB iPhone 6 only ranged from VND19.5 million ($918) to VND21 million ($988), while the price band for the iPhone 6 Plus was VND23-24 million ($1,083-1,130), according to newswire VTC News.
Since it is obvious that there were no scarcity of the new iPhones, traders predicted that prices would continue slumping until late October, when the devices are expected to be officially distributed in Vietnam.
Even so, Apple’s latest smartphones will be challenged by a tough rival, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4, which is also reported to be officially rolled out to Vietnam late next month.
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