Chinese teenager sells kidney to buy an Apple iPad 2 and iPhone

The 17-year-old Xiao Zheng found an advert on the internet which offered 20,000 yuan for the organ. The boy travelled north to the city of Chenzhou in Hunan province where the kidney was removed at a hospital. Zheng was discharged after three days.

Shenzhen TV reported that the teenager from the southern province of Guangdong said: I wanted to buy an iPad 2, but I didn't have the money.

With the money he bought an iPad 2 and an iPhone but was not able to conceal his trade from his mother who became suspicious after seeing the gadgets.

The Telegraph reported that the mother reported the crime to the police in Chenzhou. However the hospital denied that any such operation took place.

Recently the Apple iPad 2 launch in China took a violent turn when a scuffle broke out between an Apple Store employee and customer which left four people injured. Scalpers where attempting to make hay while it shines by selling the sought out tablets for $30 premium.

In March Chinese scalpers had lined up outside an Apple Store in New York, to buy as many iPads as they could to later sell the tablets in China for a premium.

China is a thriving market for Apple a fact punctuated by Apple's plan to open 25 stores in China. WSJ reported that after Apple released the iPad in September sales of tablet PCs jumped from 600,000 units in the third quarter. CNET reported that Apple was able to corner 78 percent of the tablet demand in China.

And while Apple preps its iCloud for its developers conference WWDC on June 6 maybe Apple can take a cue from the kidney-sale report and make iPad 2 more affordable in China where ironically the iPad is manufactured to cut costs.