Today (September 20) is the release day of the iPhone 16, and “Long Queue in Apple Stores Amidst Heavy Rain for iPhone 16 Release” has become a hot topic among Chinese netizens.
According to reports from mainland Chinese media, on September 20, the iPhone 16 series was officially released. The first batch of users who pre-ordered online have started receiving their new phones, while retail stores opened early at 8:00 AM to serve users who had booked for pickup.
Despite the heavy rain in Beijing, a long queue formed outside the Apple store in Sanlitun, as consumers who purchased the first batch of the iPhone 16 series and booked for the earliest pickup slot waited outside the store to become the first users of the iPhone 16 series.
Shanghai also experienced heavy rain, but Apple fans showed undiminished enthusiasm, forming long queues for pickup, leading to crowded stores.
The newly released iPhone 16 series does not support direct offline purchases at Apple retail stores. Currently, official channels only support online pre-orders for scheduled pickups at retail stores.
On the same day, Huawei’s foldable screen phone, the Mate XT, also went on sale.
Located just across the street from each other in Beijing’s Wangfujing area, the flagship stores of Apple and Huawei saw a surge of customers on the first day. The Apple store was more crowded than the Huawei store.
According to reports from Central News Agency, Apple stores began selling stock phones and facilitating online pickups at 8 AM. Observations on-site showed a large number of people queuing for pickups inside and outside the Apple stores in the morning, making the stores bustling with activity. The Huawei store opened for pickups at 10 AM, but there were fewer people queuing for pickups compared to the Apple store. Due to the more complex rules surrounding the foldable phone, consumers spent more time picking up their Huawei devices. Additionally, there were many onlookers among the crowd at the Huawei store.
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