The long wait for Apple products in Beijing turned ugly over the weekend when a skirmish erupted outside one of the company’s stores, resulting in a broken glass door and injuries to customers and one employee, reports “Computerworld” (http://macte.ch/tB8ib). The iPad 2 had just gone on sale, but it was the white iPhone 4, released a week earlier, that caused the trouble, the article adds.
News of Saturday’s incident has circulated in the local Chinese press, with photos on the Web showing an Apple customer bloodied and laying on the ground. A spokesman for Beijing’s public security bureau told “Computeworld” that the parties involved in the dispute had resolved the matter, but he gave no other details. Apple said in a statement that its Beijing store located in the Sanlitun district closed for several hours on Saturday after a group outside of the store “became unruly.”
“The store team acted to protect themselves and our customers by closing the doors and preventing the group from entering,” Apple said. “The safety of our customers and employees is our top priority.”