iPhone 6 and the Chinese Mafia
Pretty crazy how quickly Chinese culture can find ways to exploit things. It was only late last year that Apple finally extended it's reach to China when they began selling the iPhone 5S and 5C there.
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launch is the second iPhone launch since then.
I completely agree with Casey Neistats sentiments that this is a pretty disheartening sight to see. It's clear that these elderly Chinese folks lining up do not even remotely care about the iPhone 6 they're lining up for. They are most likely being exploited by the "Mafia" that has spawned around the iPhone blackmarket as China won't get the iPhone 6 (at this stage) till early 2015. It has been reported that due to this delay, iPhone 6's are selling for up to USD$3,400 in China and this price is likely to only go up as blackmarket stocks deplete.
Worst part about this all is that behaviour like this does not even surprise me. I have Chinese heritage myself and am all too familiar with it.
The Chinese spot-fillers in this short-film are most likely folks in poor paying jobs who are in need of any financial help they can get. I believe this is a cultural issue that is deeply ingrained in China. Given how large China's population is and how much of it's billion plus population is permanently stuck in the lower poverty class, it has become a dog-eat-dog type of society where anything goes.
To add to this extreme population size, the Bystander Effect I believe, has played a large role in furthering this type of negative social behaviour in China's society. This is the social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present
From my experiences, exploitative acumen, regardless of it's morality is actually a cheered "entrepreneurial" attribute and is often praised in Chinese culture. Morality is less of an issue rather, they wonder why they did not think of it first.
I know that the sociological & anthropological forces which are behind such negative behaviour are much larger than this and it is definitely not a phenomenon that is specific to Chinese culture. Still pretty interesting/disgusting though isn't it?
I really hope Apple can effectively address supply issues like this in the future as it has definitely discouraging sight to see and experience.