As black market technology improves, knocking off DVDs, Fendi bags and even cars has become child's play. Now it's gotten to the point where pirates can apparently produce workable iPhone dupes, as all of the electronic components can be ordered separately and assembled by a savvy pirate operation.
"What I'm selling is a Chinese iPhone," says one pirate vendor, who apparently gets his stash from a factory in Shenzhen, China that cranks out a thousand at a time. "It's not a fake iPhone. It works perfectly fine."
"It's the exterior we are imitating," says another pirate. "If customers want functions, we can offer more and much better functions than the real phone." Yeah, um, whatever. Well, at least Apple may be mollified by the fact that they're not the only game in pirate-town--cell phones under the brands "Nokian" and "Snog Ericsson" (a company whose name was apparently not test-marketed in the UK) are seeing brisk sales. Read all about it here.
via japan times
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