Frankie Nguyen, an iPhone reseller who had come to Singapore from Vietnam on Thursday, purchased two iPhone 15 Pro Max models at Courts Nojima at The Heeren. - ST
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): The new Apple iPhone 15 is being resold online just hours after it officially went on sale in Singapore at 8am on Friday (Sept 22).
Checks by The Straits Times on Carousell showed about 74 listings of the phones by 10am, with prices ranging from S$1,680 to $2,500.
For instance, an iPhone 15 Pro (256GB), which retails from $1,809, was being resold for $1,900 to $2,500. The phone features a titanium case and a faster chip that enables better cameras and mobile gaming.
The retail prices of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus start at $1,299 and $1,449 respectively.
Snaking queues were seen at the Apple stores in Orchard Road and Marina Bay Sands, as well as at Courts Nojima at The Heeren on Friday morning, with some people even queueing a day before to snag the new gadgets.
Some had even come prepared with mineral water and food, while others had what seemed to be their luggage with them.
First to collect their new iPhones at the iStudio outlet in Paragon mall were Zaman and Zahit Haque, tech reviewers from Bangladesh.
The pair, who had originally been queueing at the Apple flagship store in Orchard Road since 2pm yesterday, got their hands on the gadgets at 8am today, thanks to some quick thinking.
“We were walking for a bit at 2am and realised that there was no queue at iStudio,” said Zaman, who then left to be the first in line at iStudio.
At Courts Nojima at The Heeren, Frankie Nguyen bought two units of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. He had flown in from Vietnam yesterday to buy the phones, with the intention of reselling them back home.
“In Vietnam, only iPhone’s Pro Max models will sell really well,” he said.
He said he had also sent out his team of resellers to Thailand for the launch and hoped to go back to Vietnam with 20 iPhones.
Over at Singtel’s Comcentre at Exeter Road, engineer Ng K.A’s 13-hour wait paid off when he was first in line to collect his iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The 42-year-old started queuing since 6.30pm on Thursday. He was also the first in queue in 2018, 2019 and 2022 at the Singtel flagship store for the iPhone releases during those years.
Singtel Singapore’s head of channel sales & operations Jensen Tan said the company has deployed 25 per cent more manpower to help with the launch on Friday morning.
Apple unveiled its new iPhone 15 line-up in California earlier in September, which includes two entry-level models and two high-end models.
All four iPhone models will shift to a USB-C charging port to comply with new European Union regulations.
The higher-end models feature a redesigned frame that uses titanium instead of stainless steel to make the phones lighter, and an A17 processor, which uses the more advanced 3-nanometre production method.
The top-of-the-range new iPhone, which sports a 6.7-inch screen, also has a new camera with deeper optical zoom.
