Chinese Apple fans can‘t buy apps on the AppStore unless they can pay with an international credit card in U.S. dollars. 

FruitNinja, one of the most popular apps for Apple mobile devices, sells for US$0.99 (about 6.39 yuan) on the App Store. But on many Chinese websites, the software can be downloaded for less than $0.15 (1 yuan), the National Business Daily reported.

Other popular apps such as GuitarToolkit, Plunderland and GalaxyonFire2 can also be found much cheaper on other Web sites, often at one-sixth of their App Store price.

Hot apps are widely available for sale on Chinese retail sites. A search for FruitNinja on Taobao.com, China‘s leading e-commerce platform, returned more than 2,600 hits.

The apps on the unofficial sites are often sold using gift certificates from Apple Inc. sent by e-mail, an online shopkeeper said. Consumers often get free gift tickets from Apple Inc. after they buy Apple products. These can then be sold on the market.

Other stores make use of another loophole: Users can download an Apple app an unlimited number of times after they buy it in the AppStore. So some buyers share their user accounts with others to make money, said Zhang Zhiming, head of a Shanghai-based IT company.

Chinese Apple fans can‘t buy apps on the AppStore unless they can pay with an international credit card in U.S. dollars. For Apple users without these cards, unauthorized sites offer a way around this barrier.

Apple China declined to comment on illegal app downloads in the country.

據(jù)《每日經(jīng)濟(jì)新聞》報(bào)道，一款名為FruitNinja的游戲在蘋(píng)果（中國(guó)）AppStore上售價(jià)0.99美元（約合6.39元人民幣），在部分網(wǎng)店售價(jià)甚至不到1元人民幣。

此外，熱門(mén)游戲GuitarToolkit、Plunderland與GalaxyonFire2等也以低至原價(jià)1/6的價(jià)格出售。

很多熱門(mén)的蘋(píng)果應(yīng)用軟件都可以在網(wǎng)店上找到。在淘寶上輸入“水果忍者”，可以搜到相關(guān)寶貝2600多件。

一位銷售蘋(píng)果app的淘寶網(wǎng)店店主向記者透露：app主要來(lái)源于蘋(píng)果公司內(nèi)部流出的禮品券，以電子郵件方式進(jìn)行傳送交易。這些禮品券基本上都是購(gòu)買(mǎi)蘋(píng)果旗下商品回送的代金券。

此外，在AppStore上，一個(gè)消費(fèi)者在開(kāi)通賬戶并付費(fèi)購(gòu)買(mǎi)了一款應(yīng)用后，原則上便可以無(wú)限次地下載這個(gè)應(yīng)用。由于利益驅(qū)使，一些人便將賬戶共享給購(gòu)買(mǎi)者使用，上海一家信息技術(shù)公司負(fù)責(zé)人張志明指出，

部分網(wǎng)友通過(guò)代購(gòu)方式購(gòu)買(mǎi)了AppStore內(nèi)的應(yīng)用程序。這些網(wǎng)友之所以要代購(gòu)，是因?yàn)樘O(píng)果AppStore只接受?chē)?guó)際信用卡美元付款。

對(duì)于蘋(píng)果應(yīng)用在國(guó)內(nèi)遭遇違規(guī)交易，蘋(píng)果中國(guó)公關(guān)部表示“對(duì)此事暫不予評(píng)價(jià)”。