Beiruting News

The app sensation Flappy Bird was been removed from the iPhone and Android app stores by its developer over the weekend, but it is still available for those prepared to buy a smartphone or tablet with the game already installed.

Dozens of enterprising eBay sellers are piggybacking on the popularity of the game - and the news of its sudden withdrawal over the weekend - by selling phones pre-installed with the Flappy Bird game on Apple iPhones and Android smartphones.

Different sellers are offering mobile phones with Flappy Bird for between $300 to $5,000, mostly for white iPhone 5S.

While secondhand mobiles are usually sold with the data removed, canny sellers will have been able to wipe the phone and then install an existing copy of the game from their desktop computers. Promoting Flappy Bird as a selling point may be simply a way of shifting a phone they were selling already.