Lured by the promise of profit from smuggling the new iPhones into China, opportunists joined the thousands of Apple fans lining up to buy the devices as they were launched on Friday across Asia. Regulatory hurdles mean the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus won't be available soon in China, the world's biggest smartphone market. Benefiting from the delay were many people in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, who said they were buying as many iPhones as they could specifically for resale in China. Justin Leung, a 28-year-old financial planner from Hong Kong, said he paid his friends in Japan to buy iPhones, which he plans to sell in mainland China. Leung said he had set out to buy 35 iPhones from Tokyo, but he and his friends only managed to get a hold of 25 units. At an Apple store in Tokyo's up-market Omotesando Boulevard, another Chinese man who declined to be identified said he had paid a group of Japanese to buy iPhones on his behalf. Apple representatives could not immediately be reached to comment on the practice.
IN-DEPTH
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SOCIAL
--- Reuters
