Vietnamese camp outside Singapore shops in wait of iPhone 7

Many are determined to be the first to buy the new device. However, Apple doesn’t have a direct retail presence in the country, so the eager fans have to go the extra mile to get their hands on a new phone.

Vietnamese dealers and resellers have quickly spotted a lucrative business opportunity here and are willing to pay line-sitters who may have to camp outside outlets in Singapore for a couple of days leading up to the iPhone’s launch there this Friday.

Some Vietnamese living in Singapore have posted ads on Facebook asking for VND2 million ($90) to camp out overnight to be the first in line for the new phone.

“It seems long to wait in line for 24 hours. But you will stay occupied playing card games, shooting the breeze with your fellows and even shopping in the mall,” a Facebook account named Son Le said in an advertising status.

Any time that Apple launches a new product, there is an influx of such requests posted in the online technology community, and this time Apple’s true aficionados in Vietnam are still impatient to get those phones.

“We will handle paying the bills. All you have to do is to be the first in line. And more importantly, you can get paid much higher for an iPhone 7 Plus in the new color Jet Black,” Thang, a reseller in Hanoi, told VnExpress.

Quang, a dealer in Ho Chi Minh City, said the interest in line-sitters has been growing in the weeks leading up to the launch this weekend. He said due to the whopping demand, people will ask to be paid much more than than they were last time and securing a spot in the line is important, so Quang decided to fly his staff to Singapore.

“This time we will probably have to wait in line for a couple days,” said Quang. “The business is also quite risky. The price could slump heavily by a few million dong. There is a chance we could make a loss on this,” he said.