iPhone is sneaking into St. Maarten
April 28, 2008
The tremendously popular Apple iPhone is showing up on the shores of St. Maarten and Saint Martin. More and more island shops are offer the iPhone for sale (the 8mb and 16mb models) although there is no AT&T carrier on either side of the island.
The question that arises is: Who’s buying the i-Phones on St. Maarten and Saint Martin? Is it the U.S. tourists or the local population?
Seeing the amount of local advertising in newspapers and even radio stations, one may wonder. The typical target market of these advertising avenues is mainly the local population. This implies that the phones are being “unlocked” which according to Apple is not “allowed”.
Not to be a stickler about these practices, since the “unlocking” seems to happen all over the world but this does call for some questioning about “best practices” that could further tarnish the St. Maarten and Saint Martin duty-free markets since “knock-offs” have already been found on-island.
Granted, the iPhone is not a knock-off and the comparison may not necessarily be completely adequate, but the market is already tarnished by unsound practices such as parallel imports for cigarettes and alcohol, fake brand name imitation products such as Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Porsche … and other questionable practices such as music and DVD piracy.
Most surprising is that the Apple iPhones are sold via “official” Apple dealerships.
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