Lifestyle Tech | 26 Apr 2010 :
Just three weeks after the global launch, bootleg versions of Apple iPad have begun showing up on the shelves of shops in China. There's just one obvious difference from the real thing - they run Windows.
Apple recently delayed the iPad's international launch after huge demand in the US caught Apple off guard. But Chinese consumers looking for knock-offs of the company's latest must-have product need look no further than the teeming electronics mall in Shenzhen, the southern Chinese boomtown near the border with Hong Kong.
Hefty and thickset with three USB ports and a more rectangular shape than the original, iPad knowck-off runs a Windows operating system and looks more like a giant iPhone. It costs 2,800 yuan ($410), making it slightly cheaper than the iPad's $499-$699 price tag.
Chinese counterfeiters have rushed to fill the iPad gap since its release. Taobao, China's largest online marketplace, contains hundreds of listings for the coveted product, many real but some dubiously labeled as "China goods", with claims to have even better features than the real deal.
Like the models in the Shenzhen market, these fake iPads also retail for around 2800 yuan each, compared with 4,000-6,000 yuan for those marketed as real.
Analysts expect the iPad to do well in Asia given Apple's strong branding and the rising number of affluent middle class consumers. But few are surprised by the quick appearance of a counterfeit version in a country where pirated movies often appear in markets in the same week of their cinema release.
"China is basically a market that has the ability to clone everything, so it's really not surprising," said Edward Yu, chief executive of Beijing-based researcher Analysys International. "I don't think piracy is a bad thing for the iPad given that China has a huge population, maybe the clone iPads will give more of the potential users a look and feel."
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