It is no surprise that the iPhone 4S is a global phenomenon, after all Apple seems to construct a home run with every new release they see in the mobile market. Virtually anywhere you go, the iPhone is still the “go-to” mobile device for just about everywhere.

No other phone produces so much excitement as the iPhone does when it is first put on sale, a point that has recently been proven by excited Apple fans in China. Even though the iPhone 4S has been around for a while now in the States, it has only now been released for sale in China, where it was greeted with just as much enthusiasm as we gave it in America; if not more.

iPhone 4S China Launch Turns into Riot

This was apparent when a big crowd of die-hard Apple fans swarmed the Beijing Sanlitun Apple Store that was getting ready to sell the 4S. Apparently the crowd wasn’t too pleased with the fact that the Apple store was not opening on time for the customers, and that is when things started to get out of hand.

Fights broke out amongst the crowd and eventually the Beijing Police had to intervene with the ordeal, to keep things a little more calm. A large part of the crowd are people called “scalpers” who buy the phone at the store first, only to turn around and sell it for a much higher price because of the overwhelming demand.

Because of this incident, Apple has now withdrawn all of the sales of iPhone 4S’ from stores, and instead has decided to make it an online only type of thing. Here, you purchase an iPhone off the web and then travel to your local Apple store to pick it up. It is unclear whether or not Apple will resume selling the iPhones in the future. It also makes you wonder how this will affect the revenue for Apple stores in China.