Apple Suspends In-Store Sale of iPhone 4S in China Due to Safety Concerns

As we had reported earlier, Apple was forced to cancel the iPhone 4S launch in Beijing today due to unruly crowd.

Reuters now reports that Apple has suspended in-store sale of iPhone 4S in all the five retail stores in the country due to the crowd trouble.

Reuters reports:

The iPhone 4S, which went on sale early Friday, caused a near-riot in one of Apple's Beijing retail stores.

"The demand for iPhone 4S has been incredible and our stores in China have already sold out," an Apple spokeswoman said.

"Unfortunately, we were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd. And to ensure the safety of our customers and our employees, iPhones will not be available in our retails stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being," she said.

Reuters reports that customers will be able to buy iPhone 4S from Apple's online store or from China Unicom's website. But it looks like Apple's online store are also out of stock of all iPhone 4S models.

Take a look at the photo below (courtesy M.I.C Gadget), which gives a glimpse of the massive crowd outside Apple's Sanlitun retail store in Beijing with the SWAT team trying to control them. It gives a good idea of why Apple was forced to cancel the iPhone 4S launch.

We won't be surprised if Samsung's new Samsung Galaxy II ad mocks Apple fanboys in China.

[via Reuters]