It is amazing the tremendous fan base Apple Inc. has built over the last eight years for its iPhones and iPads. The loyalty of the fan base is even more amazing as people don’t find much discomfort in queuing outside an Apple Store even before the fresh iPhone6s is launched.
But there was an elevated extension to the popular Apple Obsession when two Chinese men attempted the sale of their kidney so as to raise money to buy one of the new iPhones.
Going by the reports from China Daily based on local media reports, two young men in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, got in touch with “an illegal agent to sell their kidneys.”
See also: 5 Reasons Why You Should Buy The iPhone 6S.
Going into the details of the report, one of the men, whose surname is Wu, didn’t have enough money to buy an iPhone 6s, which at retail price is 5,288 RMB in China. If you convert that amount to American dollar, you get $830, which tells us that there exist a $180 premium on the latest iPhone if brought against the price in the U.S.
As the report unveiled, a friend of Wu called Huang, brought in the suggestion that they could sell a kidney each in so as to raise money to purchase the new iPhone6s, the price which is basically bigger than the average monthly wage in China as at the year 2014.
The men then proceeded to reach an illegal agent via the internet. As gathered the illegal agent had instructed them to partake in medical examinations at one hospital located in Nanjing. As things unfolded, on the 12th of September when the arranged tests were supposed to take place, the agent failed to appear. The non-appearance of the agent made Wu have a second thought about the plan deciding to forsake the deal. But Huang was bent on finishing the transaction as planned. So Wu called the police, but Huang had escaped before they arrived and has not been in touch since.
However, this is not the first demonstration of the extremes to which people in China could go to get Apple smartphones which are basically out of their reach financially. Back in 2012, five men landed themselves in the net of law enforcement agents when a teenager sold his kidney to purchase an iPad and an iPhone. This occurred in southern China, when the 17-year old boy got paid about $3,000 for one of his kidneys; the proceeds of the trade he used to buy the ipad and iPhone. 2012.The teenager, simply known by his surname Wang, following the sale of one of his kidneys had suffered from renal failure. The group who according to reports had gained $35,000 for the transplant, got charged with illegal organ trading and causing intentional injury
The following year 2013, human trafficking charges were pressed against a couple for attempting to sell three of their new born kids so as to buy an iPhone 5. The couple had reportedly been paid $13,000 for selling the babies. Even last year, a man was willing to put his girlfriend on the counter to pay for an iPhone6.
It is truly amazing that the love of Apple products is becoming the root and even stem of many evils.
