THE CULT OF APPLE IN CHINA

摘要

The eggs started smashing against the Apple Store windows just before dawn. Most of the hundreds of people who swarmed the swank plaza adjacent to the glowing, glass-cube outlet had huddled all night long in Beijing's frigid January temperatures. But these weren't early adopters desperate for the newly released iPhone 4S. Nor were they citizens outraged at the labor conditions inside the Chinese factories that churn out Apple gadgets. Instead, most were rural migrants who had been paid about $15 each to purchase iPhones and then hand them over to scalpers who would sell them at inflated prices. (Each buyer was limited to two iPhones per day.) As light began streaking across the morning sky, tempers frayed.