What with RIM having riots in Indonesia, it seems that the world of mobile tech they all copy each other, now its Apples turn to hit the headlines after a major situation occurred in China following the release of the iPhone 4S to the Chinese market at one of their flagship stores in Sanlitun, Beijing.

With thousands queuing up outside for a chance to get the device as soon as possible, it appears that Apple took the precaution of simply not opening up shop for fears that they could not manage the madding crowds effectively, this of course resulted in fights, eggs been thrown and calls of “liar” and “cheats” at teh Apple and staff on top of all this SWAT teams were called in to manage the violence, and effectively managed to disperse crowds by 10.00 A.M.

Scalpers to blame for iPhone 4S riots in China:

“Scalpers” are common in China, and it is reported in Reuters that gangs were employing hundreds of people to queue to get a chance to buy the new iPhone 4S stock and resell it at a premium once it had all been sold.

You can still get some phones from online stores in China:

Apple store online and China Unicom.

Other stores in Beijing and Shanghai opened and sold as usual.

Apples fear of losing control:

Could it be that Apple are simply so scared of not being able to micro manage all potential buyers, that there is a limit to how many people can actually consider coming into an Apple store?

On my estimation they would have need 30,000 Chinese Apple Store members to effectively “welcome”, in typical Apple style, this crowd of 10,000 strong Apple iPhone lovers.

Though, I have to say, if they were to ever deliver on this, they are surely in the best country in the world to try it!

Blackberry’s message system BBM is famous for being a closed messaging service meaning that services such as the police can not easily intercept the data that is transferred between private group chats.

This has proven popular for business users who want to make sure sensitive information is kept as safe as possible in the airwaves, this has however meant that Blackberry devices have become popular with criminals and it now would appear rioters in London.

Blackberry have issued a statement on their twitter account stating:

“We feel for those impacted by the riots in London. We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can”

Blackberry have become very popular in the UK teen market with 37 percent of UK teenagers citing the Blackberry as their smartphone of choice. This is mainly down to the free and confidential BBM message service which replaces the usual SMS text messaging service.

Blackberry’s are the smartphone of choice for “Yoof” of Britain:

Blackberry’s BBM group messaging service is perfect for covert communication, it is a totally encrypted means of sharing text like messages with people who have access to your own personal pin, this keeps communication totally closed.

Blackberry could be accused of targeting the “urban youth” element of society, their phones are a little cheaper than more sophisticated smartphones, and they have even been the recent sponsors of a ‘secret gig’ in Shoreditch Town Hall with huge names from the UK rap scene taking the stage.

Indeed Mark Duggan the young man shot dead who is now perhaps unfairly linked to the appalling riots was last known to be using a Blackberry phone texting his girlfriend that:

“The Feds are following me.”

Jonathan Akwue – one of the first people to raise the BBM connection – points out:

BBM is fast, free and private. It’s also created a ‘shadow social network‘ which is invisible to Police snooping.

Will Blackberry bow down to police and legal requests to decode BBM messages from suspect rioters?

Blackberry has a somewhat solid stance at defending its right to keep the encrypted data sent by its users to itself, I am unsure just what would be needed in order to force Blackberry to actually go against one of its selling points and allow the police access to users confidential and encrypted BBM messages.

Social networks blamed for riots:

Facebook and Twitter are being blamed for escalating the riots in London and Birmingham, this is totally pointless blame, they are merely a means of communication and people have used any form of communication at hand, riots are a part of Britain’s fabric though the recent unrest does seem to have a much more sinister undertone in the totally random nature.