Resellers charge top dollar for early iPhone 4S

BEIJING - Unauthorized Apple retailers are selling iPhone 4S units at stunning prices even though Apple did not name China as one of the first countries to launch the device.

On Sunday morning, a reseller put up a notice outside its shop in Zhongguancun E-plaza, a mall retailing computers and digital products, saying it had the first iPhone 4S units in Zhongguancun. The price for a 16G iPhone 4S was close to 10,000 yuan ($1,560), which is more than twice the official price in those countries first authorized to sell them.

So far Apple has launched the iPhone 4S in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan. The new phone went on sale there on Friday.