Chinese pelt Apple store with eggs as iPhone sales delayed

BEIJING -- Apple's main store here was pelted with eggs Friday from a crowd of about 500 people after it failed to open on time for the start of sales of the iPhone 4S.

Apple had advertised that the store would open at 7 a.m. At about 7:15 a.m., the crowd began chanting "Open the door," and "Liars," after a man with a bullhorn said the phone would not go on sale Friday, without giving an explanation. The man also declined to identify himself to a Bloomberg News reporter. The crowd chased away a man who tried to stop the egg throwing.

The customers had gathered by 6 a.m. in the capital's Sanlitun district, an hour before the store's scheduled early opening for the first day of 4S sales. At least 20 public security officers were on hand. Carolyn Wu, a Beijing-based Apple spokeswoman, didn't immediately respond to calls and emails.

Chen Moumou, 21, said she and her mother arrived at the Beijing storefront at 5 a.m., aiming to replace her Nokia handset with an iPhone.

"The iPhone is really hot right now because it has a lot of features, and now the 4S has this Siri function that I am really interested in," Chen said. "I don't care that Siri can't speak Chinese, I want to use it to help learn English."

In Shanghai, hundreds of people formed a line outside the store in the city's Pudong district as of about 4:15 a.m. Some of them said they had arrived Thursday afternoon. The store opened at 6 a.m., an hour earlier than advertised.

Apple's latest smartphone, the 4S, may help drive sales in China, where the company may add a second carrier this year, said Teck Zhung Wong, a Beijing-based analyst at IDC China.

Apple sold 5.6 million iPhones in China in the first nine months of last year, giving it a 10.4 percent share of China's smartphone market in the third quarter, according to research company Gartner. Apple's Wu earlier declined to comment on the outlook for iPhone 4S sales in China.

China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd., the nation's second-largest carrier, is the only one of the country's three service providers offering the iPhone with a service contract. China Unicom sent a text message to subscribers trumpeting free home delivery of the new handset through its online store.

"Buy the iPhone 4S without lining up!" China Unicom said in a text sent to subscribers in Beijing. Unicom's online shop made the device available at midnight, the text said.

The site lists the 16-gigabyte model for 5,880 yuan ($930), with different levels of subsidies. The handset is free to users committing to a three-year plan for 286 yuan a month or a two- year plan costing 386 yuan a month, the website said.

Wong of IDC said he expects Apple to partner this year with the nation's third-largest mobile company, China Telecom. The iPhone 4S will appeal to China Telecom users that have never been able to get an iPhone before, he said.

That would almost double Apple's access to existing mobile subscribers able to get the iPhone through a service contract with a local carrier. China Unicom has about 36.5 million third- generation network subscribers.

Apple moved a step closer to accessing China Telecom's 33.4 million 3G users when regulators this month approved specifications for a device running on China Telecom's CDMA2000 network. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company still needs to get a license from China's Telecommunications Equipment and Certification Center before it can sell the device.