Apple's iPhone 4S was available in several Beijing shopsSaturday, despite not officially being for sale in China.
"Today we have got two from Canada, they're 11,000 yuan($1,720) each. If you're interested, you need to come straight away," asaleswoman at a mobile phone shop at Hailong market told AFP.
She said it was a 16GB model, the least expensive in therange. In the US the same phone is sold for $199 with a two-year contract.
At Zhongguancun, the Chinese "Silicon Valley", inthe northwest of Beijing, a shopkeeper specialising in Apple products said:"We don't have any more, it will be next Tuesday at best."
Many Chinese media titles also reported on the high-pricesales of the much sought-after phones.
By the end of August China had 940 million mobile phoneusers, 10 percent of which were on 3G, according to the ministry of industryand information technology.
Wang Jianzhou, the President of China Mobile, the country'sbiggest operator, said they had sold 9.5 million iPhones by the end ofSeptember, according to the Beijing Qingnian Bao newspaper.
The second biggest operator, China Unicom, announced a dropin price for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 from Sunday although the official date forthe launch of the iPhone 4 in China has not been set.
The latest Apple product was launched in seven countries onThursday and will be released for sale in another 22 countries on October 28.
According to experts in the field it will come out in Chinatowards the end of the year, Xinjing Bao newspaper reported.
Apple products are extremely popular in China where peoplequeue for hours to get their hands on the latest devices.
After the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs last week almost35 million tributes were posted on the microblogging site Sina Weibo.