One week after Apple started selling the iPhone 5S and 5C in the world market, the price of this handset, especially the “champagne gold” version, has been pushed up as local traders are taking advantages of the rising demand for the latest Apple-made smartphone.

They have quoted the price for the golden version of iPhone 5S at VND28.5 million ($1,339) each, around 88 percent and 207 percent higher than the retail prices in Singapore and the US, respectively.

Heating up

Hoang Hoa, a corporate employee based in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City, told Tuoi Tre she wanted to replace the old phone which was damaged when dropping into water. The replacement of her favorite is a “champagne gold” version of the iPhone 5S.

But when checking for the retail price at a local store, Bach Long, she was shock when knowing the price for her favorite was quoted at VND33 million ($1,551), some VND10 million higher than the black and white versions of the same handset.

Hoa said an employee of the store told her that shortage supply caused the price fever.

In fact, from September 20-25, the retail price surged 20 percent to VND24 million for a 16GB black version of the Iphone 5S, and the price for the “champagne gold” version were raised to VND30-34 million each for the 16GB version.

If customers feel that 16GB is not enough for their internal storage demand, they have to pay VND52 million ($2,444) to quadruple it by getting the 64GB version.

On Saturday, the price of the 16GB black version retread to some VND17 million each.

But this not applied for the “champagne gold” version. Local trader said the VND10 million price differentiation of the “champagne gold” version helped them cover the costs of bringing the smartphone to Vietnam manually.

Last week, a steward of the national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines has been caught red-handed bringing 50 iPhone 5S, from Paris, France to Hanoi, Vietnam without declaration.

Bui Ngoc Tuan, who boarded the VN106 flight that arrived at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi last Sunday morning, was found carrying 50 iPhone 5S in his luggage without declaring to any airport security personnel.

A mobile phone retailer in Hanoi told newswire VnExpress that due to rising local demand for the handset since it was officially launched on September 20; local traders are attempting to import it to Vietnam as quickly as possible so that they can sell at higher prices.

Each 16GB version of the iPhone 5S was then sold for VND22-28 million ($987-$1,316) as local supply could not meet the rising demand. The handset, which is officially sold at around $649 for the same version internationally, has yet to be officially distributed in Vietnam.

But it has been reported that some of the 16GB iPhone 5S version has been sold at VND37 million ($1,740) each, and some dealers even shoot the price up to VND47-50 million ($2,200-2,350) due to shortage of supply.

The truth behind?

On September 20, Apple began selling the iPhone 5S and 5C. iPhone 5S Price in the U.S. is $649 ( VND13.7 million) for the unlocked 16GB version, $749 (over VND15.8 million) for the 32GB version, and $849 (nearly VND18 million) for a 64GB version.

After the first three days, Apple claimed to have sold 9 million iPhone 5S and 5C, a figure that far exceeds the record volume of 5 million handsets sold set by the sales of iPhone 5 in the first three days last year. However, many industry experts suspect Apple is cheating to create such a virtual sale data.

Bloomberg quoted the famous analyst, Gene Munster from market reach firm Piper Jaffray, as saying that in fact Apple had sold 5.5 million iPhone 5S and 5C to consumers, and the rest was the volumes transferred to storage Apple 's partners.

Reputable analysts, such as Peter Misek of Jefferies and Chuck Jones of Forbes, also made similar conclusions. However, the number of 9 million that Apple announced has really created a fever.

In those days, the iPhone 5S champagne gold version, as described by Apple, has become the most sought-after. Singaporean news agency Channel News Asia said in Singapore, the phone stores were reported to have the stock of their iPhone 5S yellowed version sold out in the first hour on September 20.

On eBay site, there are people selling the 16GB iPhone 5S gold from $1,100-1,800 with many potential buyers following. Especially, someone on the eBay is selling the 64GB iPhone 5S champagne gold version at $5,000-10,000.

Several US newspapers said that Apple did not anticipate the demand for the yellowed version in Asia so big, so it is now facing shortage in supply.

However, Business Insider magazine quoted several analysts pointed out that this is the only practical way to create a virtual demand of Apple. First, Apple used treated aluminum to make the champagne gold version, and aluminum prices continuously decreased for a year now, so there is no reason for aluminum shortage.

Analysts said Apple did not offer the champagne gold version of iPhone 5S to a significant number to the largest store in San Francisco or the store of Verizon on Wall Street in New York. Therefore, this is a real extremely effective marketing technique of Apple.