How far would you go to buy an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus? In a bizarre incident, two men in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province apparently tried to sell their kidneys for Apple’s latest offering, the iPhone 6s.
One of the men identified as Wu, wanted an iPhone 6s but could not afford it – at which point, his friend Huang suggested they sell a kidney each for money.
The two found an illegal agent on the internet who asked them to take medical examinations at a hospital in Nanjing, the state-run China Daily reported.
However, when they arrived at the hospital, the agent did not turn up as promised.
Wu, at this point, reconsidered selling their organs and asked his friend Huang to stop the plan – but the latter did not listen.
Wu then called the police, but Huang ran away and has been out of reach ever since.
This is not the first instance of anyone selling their own body parts to acquire the latest Apple product in China.
In April 2012, Chinese authorities had indicted five people in central China for involvement in illegal organ trading after a teenager sold one of his kidneys to earn money to buy an iPhone and an iPad. In August same year, a teenager in China sold his kidney for 22,000 yuan to buy an iPhone and an iPad.
iPhones have proved tremendously popular in China in recent years, driving a growth in sales that have made the recent handsets by far the best-selling.
Apple on September 9, launched the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, to build on the success of large-screen handsets introduced last year that have dominated the high-end smartphone market.
The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus have the same overall dimensions as the previous versions, but with new technologies under the hood.
One of the key new features is called “3D touch,” which responds to pressure exerted on the screen to allow users to look inside messages and applications.
Apple said the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus will cost the same as their predecessors; iPhone 6S’ 16, 64 and 128GB variants will cost $199, $299 and $399 on contract, while the iPhone 6S Plus’ three variants have been priced at $299, $399 and $499 respectively.
The unlocked iPhone 6S Plus will cost $649, $749 and $849 for the 16, 32, and 64GB variants. Similarly, iPhone 6S Plus unlocked will cost $749, $849 and $949 for the three storage options.