You gotta love capitalism and the pursuit of a quick buck. Except when someone takes advantage of a crazy situation to overcharge you, kind of like how our mobile operators once charged us hundreds of dollars for SIM cards.
In the U.S., following a brief TikTok ban, some eBay sellers attempted to capitalize by listing iPhones with the app pre-installed for prices even Sir Wicknell would balk at, reaching as high as $76,000 for an iPhone 15 Pro Max.
This was because, when the ban was implemented, the app was delisted from app stores, and you could not download it. However, Android users didn’t have to worry about that, as they could easily sideload it. That’s why it was only iPhones being sold at those high prices.
Would it work if one logged into their own Apple ID? This exploit relied on how iCloud handles app installations, allowing existing apps to remain even with a different Apple ID. So, one could use the pre-installed TikTok with their own account.
However, it was stupid because, with the ban in place, the app would likely display an error message. Users were getting a message that read, “A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now…”
So, getting a phone with TikTok preinstalled wouldn’t get you around that.
Hence why it doesn’t appear that anyone bought at those ridiculous prices. The high prices and the eventual lifting of the ban robbed these entrepreneurs of a quick buck.
That said, I think a TikTok creator would easily pay $76,000 to use the app if they make more than that from the app.
I guess these were the target market. If the circumstances were different and this pre-installed TikTok phone bypassed the ban, creators would have paid.
However, if other U.S. users couldn’t use the app, why would creators even bother? Maybe only those with a global following would have bought in.
Crazy stuff.
