Apple closed its flagship store in Beijing on Friday after hundreds of people clamoured to buy the latest iPhone 4S model, many of them reportedly sent by touts, dpa reported. A store manager announced the company's decision to suspend its scheduled sales of the new model through a megaphone on Friday morning, prompting an angry response from many in the waiting crowd, state media reported. The front of the store remained cordoned off with police tape and flanked by about 20 uniformed security guards in the afternoon. At least a dozen police vehicles were on standby 100 metres from the store. Several long streaks of raw egg were still smeared down the high glass windows next to the store's main entrance in the Sanlitun Village shopping complex. One of the security guards said the store would open as usual on Saturday, but notices posted at the shop's entrances said: "This store is not selling the iPhone 4S for the time being." The official Xinhua news agency said touts were believed to have hired some 1,000 people to queue to buy the phone. The Apple store has a long-running dispute with touts who try to buy up new models, sell places in the queue or make purchases on behalf of customers. Apple's second store in Beijing, in the Xidan shopping area, opened at 7 am on Friday (2300 GMT on Thursday) and sold out of iPhone 4S models within one hour, the agency said. It said the phone was also sold at an Apple store in Shanghai and was still being offered by online retailers.
