iPad Selling on Hong Kong Gray Market
cropped screen shot from a video by chinese.winandmac.comThough some international users who can't wait for the iPad to be
released in their countries have crossed borders or turned to eBay to
get one, people in
Hong Kong can buy them at retail - for a premium.According to a report on M.I.C Gadget, a blog about life in China, gadgets, and other things, at least one retailer in Hong Kong is importing the iPads from America. The report speculated that hundreds of Chinese students in America bought the iPads, sales of which were limited to 2 per person in the U.S.The report said the iPad was selling in retail shops at about twice the U.S. price. A 16 GB model costs about $6,800 Hong Kong Dollars (around $971) for the 16GB model, HKD$7,600 (about $980) for the 32 GB model, and HKD$8,400 (about $1080) for the 64GB model.M.I.C Gadget also linked to some YouTube videos (chinese.winandmac.com, HKBN bbtv, appledaily.com.hk) about the iPad being sold in Hong Kong. The videos, in Chinese language,
depict people buying and using the iPad in an electronics shop in Hong
Kong.The same man selling the iPads appears in each of the videos, but he is wearing different clothes in each video, suggesting that he's been selling the iPad for some time. M.I.C Gadget says "the boss sells about 50-100 iPads per day."M.I.C Gadget and Gizmodo called the sales illegal, but neither site made reference to any criminal investigation or said which laws were being broken. Importing products for resale, or buying through indirect channels is a common practice, often called the "gray market" because the goods are legal (as opposed to a black market, in which illegal goods or services would be traded).Gray markets exist in the U.S., too. Price-conscious photography equipment shoppers know all about it, and camera shops are fine with selling identical imported equipment at a lower price than the American version of the equipment. The side of gray markets demonstrated by the iPad in Hong Kong also happens in America: Video game enthusiasts sometimes import Japanese games before their American release. While we're not ready to call the sales illegal, we'll go out on a limb and speculate that the man in the video is not an Apple-authorized reseller.
http://www.maclife.com/article/news/ipad_sells_hong_kong_gray_market
