Huawei's tri-fold Mate XT went on sale in China on 20 September 2024. Reuters saw about thirty people queueing at flagship stores in both Beijing and Shenzhen. Yet the Shenzhen store served only customers with confirmed pre-orders; walk-in buyers found no stock.
At roughly $2,800, this was not a bargain queue. Novelty and uncertain supply created concentrated demand, while Shenzhen electronics-market sellers quoted prices far above retail.
The distinctive point is that standing in line did not create a right to buy. A digital pre-order took precedence over physical order. The people outside the shop were waiting beyond a sequence that had already been decided in a database.