Taking early bite out of Apple

A customer views the new iPhone 7 smartphone inside an Apple Inc store in Los Angeles, California, September 16, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

As the launch of a new generation of iPhone approaches, an industrial chain surrounding the new product has emerged, with market players in supporting industries stretching their resources to try for a piece of the pie.

At Shenzhen's Huaqiang North area, an electronics hub known for copycat products, various kinds of iPhone 8 covers are already on sale.

"We have already poured in about five million yuan ($767,130) in manufacturing iPhone 8 covers," said Liu Shihua, chief executive officer of Shenzhen Aiqaa Technology Co Ltd, a company specializing in making 3C digital accessories.

"So far, several million covers of the new iPhone have been produced. If the cover proves to be the right fit for the new iPhone when it is officially launched, it will bring us huge economic benefits."

The company has spent several hundred thousand yuan buying "information" about details of the iPhone 8.

The "price of the information ranges from tens of thousands of yuan to hundreds of thousands of yuan, according to the time you get the information and its accuracy. The earlier you obtain the information or the more accurate the information is, the higher the price," Liu told China Daily. "It is an unspoken rule."

The information comes from upstream suppliers in the industry, Liu said, but he declined to give further details.

Although the accuracy of the information could reach more than 90 percent, no one can guarantee it is completely right, he noted.

The company once suffered one to two million yuan loss manufacturing iPhone SE covers due to bad information.

"We have been selling iPhone 8 covers since last month," said a seller at a booth in Saige electronic market at Huaqiang North, who only gave her surname as Huang.

"We have received a large number of orders so far. The products are mainly for exports, which are sold to the US, Canada and other overseas markets. Once the final look of the new iPhone is confirmed, we will mass produce the cover.

"Data of new iPhones have been much easier to be obtained since the launch of iPhone 5," she added.