A salesman arranges a display of iPhone 5 smartphones at the Lulu
By Azmat Haroon
Doha: Apple fans are rushing to pick up the latest iPhone in Qatar, with market sources saying that stocks are quickly depleting due to the high demand.
Although the latest smartphone has not been released by Vodafone yet — the exclusive reseller of Apple in Qatar — some people paid as much QR5,000 to buy iPhone 5 from different mobile retail shops here.
On Friday, in conjunction with the phone’s release in Asia, Europe and North America, a very limited stock of iPhone 5 also popped up a shop at Al Nasser Street.
“We are currently selling 16GB at QR4,400, 32GB for QR5,400 and we have run out of stocks for the 64GB sets,” Mohammed Abdullah, the General Manager of World Communication told The Peninsula, while refusing to reveal the prices at which iPhone 5 were sold on Friday.
The price of the smartphone is fluctuating, with traders saying that they will be stabalised once the phone is released by the official reseller.
With the word about the availability of the latest phone spreading fast, many are booking the phone in advance due to limited stocks.
“My daughter saw the advertisements for iPhone 5 in the newspaper this morning and told me to buy it for her,” Jassim Al Ghazali, who bought the phone from the D-Ring Road branch of Lulu Hypermarket, said.
An official from Lulu Hypermarket, meanwhile, said that they sold over 70 sets of iPhone 5 in less than five hours yesterday.
“Even if we get a thousand sets of iPhone 5, we can sell them quickly,” the official said.
iPhone 5, which is lighter, slimmer and more powerful than its predecessors, only accepts nano sims, which are smaller than sim cards and the micro sims in the iPhone 4.
Although Vodafone began providing nano sims yesterday, Qtel launched the nano sims earlier this month in preparation for the much-anticipated smartphone.
“I already have an iPhone 4 but I didn’t buy the 4s version because I felt there wasn’t much difference between the two. The iPhone 5, however, comes with much better features which is why I bought it,” said a fan while boasting about his Samsung Galaxy S3.
The Peninsula
