The day the iPad 2 went on sale in China, several people in Beijing reported an apparition. “I saw Steve Jobs on the subway,” wrote a user on WeiPhone.com, an online Apple fan forum, on May 6. Others echoed her comments.
The vision is a telling sign of the cult status Apple has achieved in China, already the world’s largest handset market and set to become the world’s largest PC market this year.
While long queues at Apple stores are common in the US, the latest product launch in China triggered a brawl among customers in Beijing. Apple’s four stores in China are the busiest and have the highest revenue on average among all Apple stores worldwide.