The iPad 2 just went on sale in mainland China, and by all accounts the launch was absolutely mad. This picture is from the Beijing Apple store at 10AM, and the guys in white around the crowd are security. They were there to make sure everyone behaved and didn’t cut in line. Apparently the place was filled with scalpers, too, who were willing to pay big fat wads of cash to anyone who walked out with the iPad 2, which they’d later flip for a profit.
In China, only the WiFi version is available to purchase at present, as the 3G version hasn’t gone through governmental approval yet, but that hardly seems to have dampened enthusiasm.
For those who didn’t want to face the hundreds long lines, the scalpers were only charging an extra $30-$60, which is pretty reasonable if you don’t want to waste your day waiting in an enormous queue.
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