Irish Born Chinese

I'm not surprised. My husband and I were recently in Hong Kong and spent over 2 & 1/2 weeks checking out the HK's IFC Apple Store online and see if there's any stock of the hard to get hold of iPhone 4S. You can only reservere it online and pick it up the next day. What's surprising is that it's not just the iPhone 4S that's not in stock, iPhone 4 and 3GS are not in stock. We experiences the Christmas crowds and tourists (mainly from Mainland China) crammed in the store, we witnessed the long queues for the post Christmas sales, the throng of red shirts (Christmas) and now blue shirts in the store is astounding. And people are buying, not just trying Apple products. They have dedicated sections on the 1st floor helping people to set up their machines as well as holding one-to-ones, and other usual Apple services.

My husband pointed out that many HK people are walking around reading manga/news/playing games on their iPads, kids are given iPhones to keep them quiet on the train, take pictures in shopping plazas, DisneyLandHK, etc. The Chinese pretty much hoovered up Apple products as fast as they can produce them since the Apple Store opened. I remember just even two years ago, Apple products were only popular to designers, photographers and some enthusiasts like ourselves. Now Apple products are everywhere, it has gone totally mainstream. If it's that crazy in HK, I can't imagine what its like in China itself if it wasn't for the news and media.

My husband gave up on ordering an iPhone 4S in HK, so ordered from the Irish Apple online retail store, and was informed that it will be delivered within 1-2 weeks. It was delivered after one day.