iPad or shanzhai iPad? Get either starting April 3
If it looks like an iPhone and works like a iPod, then it must be a shanzhai iPod.Tech-heads in China don’t have to watch in envy this April 3 as Apple’s iPad goes on sale at Apple and Best Buy stores, they can pre-order their own iPad clones from Shenzen favorite shanzhai electronics goods company Huayi, as well as from a number of other electronics companies in China's main shanzhai market.
Although the clones won’t run run iPhone OS or third-party software, according to Geek.com, they do come with one of the features that makes Apple design an Apple according to the report: the click wheel. We thought it was the operating system and overall slick design, but that could just be us.
According to Korea IT Times, the iPad clone will hit markets at half the price of the original (RMB 2,000) and they’re taking pre-orders are you read this.
Geek.com quotes Huayi’s president Xiong Yiwei, defending his company’s position to produce the shanzhai iPad. "After developing modules, we basically made the designs to look like a jumbo iPhone. The profit margin of counterfeit cell phones reached up to 30 percent in the past, but only RMB 10 profit margin is made per one product. We had a great expectation of netbooks last year, but only RMB 100 yuan profit margin was made."
As an oversizes iPhone goes, the new iPad will be even more tricked out than the iPhone being sold in mainland China right now, it will feature Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4GB of storage and, of course, the Apple click wheel.
That’s all well and good but what good is it without the operative system, or more importantly, the Apple apps store? We’ll see on April 3. Is your order in yet?
