Fake iPhone 4G smartphone has come to the Shenzhen market with deliberate differences, a local mobile phone wholesaler confirmed on Thursday (May 06, 2010).
While Gizmodo still facing likely criminal and civil charges over the iPhone 4G leak issue, the quick Chinese Shanzhai cell phone makers have taken action to work out their imitation of iPhone 4G in mere days, a local mobile phone web site said on May 6. Today (May 6, 2010) a wholesaler told Suite101 that several models of pirated iPhone 4G mobile phones have come to the market.
"Like we have seen the iPhone 4G model leaked in the Gizmodo event, the Shanzhai iPhone 4G have a white or black exterior with squarish build. Now we can see several models of pirated iPhone 4G in the Huaqiang Bei (Huaqiang North) Mobile Phone Market of Shenzhen’s Futian District,” said the Shenzhen-based wholesaler who would like to keep his name anonymous on May 6.
Shanzhai Mobile Phones are Flooding in the Global Mobile Phone Market
Shanzhai refers to the Chinese imitation and pirated brands and goods, particularly mobile phones and computer laptops. Most of the Shanzhai mobile phone manufacturers are based in the South-China Shenzhen City.
Shenzhen, a city in the South-China Guangdong Province, produces around half of the mobile phones in China. In the first half of 2009, Shenzhen made more than 150 million mobile phones and exported 82.18 million at a wholesale price of $5.56 billion. It is estimated that Shenzhen produced more than half of the 145 million units of Shanzhai mobile phones China made in 2009, according to the Shenzhen-based Shanji Consulting. The Shanzhai mobile phones took around 14% of the market share in the global cell phone market.
Big mobile phone brands like LG and Samsung have suited Shanzhai mobile phone producers for several times. But this could not block the booming Shanzhai handset production, for the Shanzhai producers working like guerilla and not easy to be caught.
How to Tell the Differences Between Real iPhone 4G and Fake Smartphone
Shanzhai literally refers to "mountain stronghold" populated with warlords or thieves that have a spirit of Robin Hood. Though done in parody, they usually deliberately leave big differences from the products they copy. For example, the logo of Shanzhai iPhone 4G is a full apple (see the picture), different from the bitten apple of the real iPhone 4G.
Besides, the Shanzhai iPhone mobile phone is thicker and smaller than the real one, and has a different operating system. Consumers can easily tell the different between the fake one and the real one.
Chen Nanyang - Chen Nanyang's journalist career began in 2002 when he started writing for China's Nanfang City News, Singapore's United Morning Post and ...
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