The price of iPhone 4

The iPhone has held an appeal in the high-tech Chinese market for a long time. China's grey market for Apple products has been developing for years to satisfy demand for the iPhone, which only officially went on sale in China last October, more than two years after its US debut The latest version of Apple's iPhone is on sale in Beijing's electronic stores and luxury hotels, months before the official launch of the smartphone in China.

Privately imported iPhone 4s are available in the capital for as much as 17,000 yuan ($2600). That compares to a starting retail price in the United States of US$199 dollars. Vendors were confident customers would pay the hefty mark-up as the iPhone 4, which boasts high-definition video, video chat and sharper screen resolution, is not expected to be officially launched in China for at least another six months, the paper said.

Fans mobbed the stores when Apple launched the iPhone 4 in Europe, Japan and the United States. China Unicom, the only Chinese telecom operator that offers the iPhone in the world's largest cellphone market, has said it is in talks with Apple to sell the 4G handset and the iPad.

When it comes to grey markets, India is not far behind. Following the huge prices set up by both Airtel and Vodafone for the iPhone 3GS in India, customers rushed towards grey market where they could get the product for almost half the price. The 16GB iPhone has been selling in India for as low as Rs 20,000-Rs 22,000, while the telcos were offering it for over Rs 31,000.

The story is pretty much the same with iPad in India. One can buy the 16 GB WiFi version for about Rs 42,000 from some shops in Kolkata and Delhi. The 32 GB version costs Rs 52,000. But one has to give up any sort of warranty or possibility of an exchange in case of manufacturing defects. Also, there won't be any after-sales support till the iPad is officially launched in the country.

In the US, the price tag reads $499 (Rs 22,113) for 16GB and $599 (Rs 26,544) for the 32GB model. The WiFI versions are not locked and do not require any cracking when they are being sold in a country where it has not been officially launched. Hence, they will work out of the box.