Had a mystery explained to me today by my salesman at at Manchester Apple Store today, a delightful gent also named “Bryan”, as it turns out.

For a few years I’ve been curious about the organized crews of Chinese customers at the Apple store who buy the maximum number of
1/

phones, leave the store, rinse and repeat. A half-dozen or so folks doing this for, presumably, hours, and clearly reselling them elsewhere. I always wondered why.

I figured Manchester being right at the confluence of two northward highways in tax-free NH would be part of
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It. (I was right.)

But was it driven by release dates? Prices in other countries? This is where I was very wrong.

I guess I think too much of people.

In China, if you put your phone on silent and take a picture, the camera sound still is audible, so as to discourage 3/

the taking of pictures that the authorities might not want taken.

Willing to pay extra for a phone smuggles from the states without that feature?

Or how about a phone that doesn’t have certain apps (like FaceTime) disabled, as required by your draconian bureaucratic
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overlords?

There’s a market for that.

So now I know.

/fin