Shangkun’s illegal surgery had some complications, attributed to the unsanitary conditions where it took place in April of 2011. Nine people involved in the organ harvesting operation were later arrested in 2012, including five surgeons, some of whom presumably performed Shangkun’s kidney removal surgery.
Shangkun’s surgery took place around the height of Apple’s dominance of the mobile market, with the iPhone 4S phone smashing sales records for the company at the time. The iPad 2 was also the most popular tablet on the market, with the device remaining extremely popular to this day. Shangkun, who has been described in the media as a “broke teen” at the time of his surgery in 2011, was apparently so desperate to have the latest Apple tech that he was willing to go to shocking and extreme lengths to get his hands on the devices.
Apple’s mobile products have remained a hot commodity for consumers, though the tech giant’s stranglehold on the market has dwindled somewhat since the peak of its popularity. Thanks to stiff competition from the likes of Samsung and other hardware manufacturers putting out cheaper tablets, Apple saw its iPhone sales go down for the first time in history.
Perhaps another reason why iPhone sales have dipped somewhat is thanks to some of Apple’s controversies. For example, many people were upset when they discovered that the conspiracy theory that Apple purposefully slows down old iPhones is actually true. Apple attempted to explain why it decides to do this, but its explanation likely fell on deaf ears.
Despite sales slowing down, Apple hasn’t stopped putting out new iPhones. In 2018, the company unveiled the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR. Whether or not anyone went to the extreme measures that Shangkun did to get their hands on any of the new Apple phones remains to be seen, however.
Source: The Hindu
