The wildly coveted iPhone 4 officially launches this Friday, with service providers Far Eastone Telecommunications, Taiwan Mobile and Chunghwa Telecom set to announce the rates and deals on phone plans Thursday at the latest.
A rough industry estimate has the total number of pre-ordered iPhone 4s at 200,000; however, less than 30,000 of Apple Inc.'s newest phone will be available for the launch on Friday, displaying a significant product shortage in its first wave of import.
Of the three telecommunications service providers, Chunghwa Telecom lists over 10,000 users who have signed up for a phone. Taiwan Mobile has only 3,000 phones available for pre-orders, which have all been sold out, while Far EasTone has a tally of 50,000 eager consumers.
According to industry experts, each provider is limited to less than 10,000 phones for distribution, making the number of available iPhone less than 30,000.
A spokesperson of Chungwa Telecom said although there is a shortage with the first batch of iPhones, the second one will arrive one to two weeks after the launch. He added that the company predicts every person who has registered for an iPhone 4 will receive one by the end of this year.
For the launch, Far EasTone plans to throw an iPhone recycling/discount event, during which those who have the previous iPhone model can trade it in for up to NT$10,000 in discount. Users who have signed up for pre-orders with Taiwan Mobile will get free phone covers.
The Apple iPhone 4 mania has inevitably caused a rise in the number of imitation products on the black market, most of which are nonfunctional. A female shop owner in the Taipei City East District shopping area surnamed Hsu found this out the hard way, when she purchased two “iPhones” from a man who claimed to work for a consumer electronics company.
The alleged imitation product hawker — described as a polo-shirt-clad, middle-aged man — came into Hsu's store. After picking out some clothes, he engaged her in conversation regarding the iPhone 4 and even showed her some of his “samples.” The man was reportedly very knowledgeable about the product and presented company credentials, telling Hsu that his company gave amazing discounts to their store employees and that Hsu, too, could receive such benefits.
With phones priced at NT$7,000 each, Hsu requested two of the models. The man called his “company” to make sure there were still iPhones available, putting on such a convincing show that Hsu happily whipped out the NT$7,000 “down payment” for the two phones.
The man left Hsu his card with a cell phone number. After he left, the storeowner excitedly took out her new gadgets, which felt like the real thing. It wasn't until she tried to turn it on — and failed — that she noticed that the white color of the shell appeared to be spay-painted on. Hsu immediately called the number on the card and reached an actual employee of the consumer electronics company surnamed Chang. However, the real Chang claimed he never left his office, much less sold her the iPhones. It was then Hsu realized she had been duped.
Hsu filed a police report. Police cautioned everyone to be weary of a man claiming to be Mr. Chang, carrying and hawking a stash of fake iPhones.
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