With unnamed China Unicom sources, confirming that the mobile operator is in talks with Apple to offer ipad and iphone as early as next month in the country; Makers of knockoff gadgets (or fakes) in China who love to abuse Apple’s brand recognition, have come into full swing.
Such is the hurry that they are now literally putting the Apple logo to almost any device. When one says almost any device, one means it.
Wall Street journal reports that, one can find the U.S. Company’s logo on Windows laptops(Apple iPad runs on Apple’s own operating system that is based on iPhone OS), straight-up counterfeit iPhones and sometimes other handsets that look nothing like an iPhone. And these fakes sell easily in the country.
If you happen to be in Beijing at present and plan to buy an iPad; you can see tablets, positioned as iPads, boasting the following features ,looks and prices (which seem quite funny):
1) A clunky, slow-running tablet computer that run Google’s Android operating system, but having Apple’s silhouetted apple stamped on the back.
2) The device coming in an imitation iPad display box and have an iPad-style menu button at the long end of the screen.
3) Salesperson first asking prices of more than 1,200 yuan ($177) for the device, but could finally agree to sell the device around 750 yuan ($110)
4) The tablet labeled as having 64 gigabytes of memory (not conforming to its low price)
5) The device’s screen appears a little smaller than that of a real iPad.
6) The device’s desktop displays applications such as Google Maps, the Android Market and Chinese instant-messaging program QQ (real iPad doesn’t run any).
7) The device boasts of real Apple touchscreen but its touchscreen could be unresponsive.
What will happen to this fake Apple market after the advent of real iPad and iPhone in the country, will depend on what steps the Chinese Government takes to cull the fakes. If the government chooses to overlook; then like many other developing markets, Fakes will keep catering to those who can’t afford the real thing.
In Asia, the real iPad is already available in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.
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