6 ms·

China Rips Off The iPad With The iPed

85 points by jrnkntl 16y ago

drKarl 16y ago
It seems that China has already built the $100 tablet the OLPC wanted to build...
- lkjhghjk 16y ago
  Not really, the point of OLPC was the software that let you modify it. Their mistake was trying to do the hardware as well. If you build a good enough OS then the hardware will appear and market demand will make it $100. If you are only worried about the HW being $100 then you can get an 1980s dos machine.
- jodrellblank 16y ago
  The one with the dual colour/sunlight readable screen, clockwork power, mesh networking and introspectable software? Where?
ZeroGravitas 16y ago
I was going to comment that it's going to be revolutionary when these guys combine forces with Android, but it says in the story that this is built on Android. Interesting times.
- WiseWeasel 16y ago
  It also says it's running on an Intel CPU, which has got to be wrong. Android doesn't run on the x86 architecture as far as I know. Take the info with a grain of salt. [Edit] Well, it seems like there may be some unsupported (by Google) Android-x86 work going on, so maybe it's possible: http://www.android-x86.org/ http://www.android-x86.org/ I wonder if the fact that Android software runs in a JIT-compiled runtime mean that binaries for Android-ARM are compatible with Android-x86. [/Edit]
kevinelliott 16y ago
Combine this with some interface and packaging cleanup (something one really talented designer could do), and some decent marketing, and they could make a fortune off this thing. I would still keep my iPad, but I'd probably buy a few of these for guests to use, and as additional interfaces around the house!
- nooneelse 16y ago
  Battery life might be the deal breaker on this device. But yeah, if that isn't terrible, why have a $500 picture frame, home theater controller, and toy for the kids when you can have a $100 one that fills those roles just as well? How soon till a proper reviewer can get their hands on this and put it through some paces? Engadget, how about putting that checkbook journalism to some good use?
  - lkjhghjk 16y ago
    YOu can already buy them (or very similar) for $130 including shipping http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39459 http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39459
jdietrich 16y ago
This is why Android is so incredibly important. The Chinese can build good hardware at ridiculously low cost, but they just can't do software, as anyone who has ever used an iPhone knock-off can testify. Android massively cuts R&D costs, putting the agile and efficient Chinese manufacturers at a distinct advantage. Android will take the whole of the Chinese and Indian smartphone market by default, unless something else comes along which is more open, versatile and easy to implement. The markets are sufficiently price sensitive that $7 extra for a WinMob license is a dealbreaker, let alone the vast premium the likes of Jobs or Kallasvuo charge. They have peculiar demands that western manufacturers just aren't attuned to - when have you ever seen a Nokia or a Motorola with dual sim card slots? Western hardware companies should be sweating about their local markets too, but not because of the threat of generic clones - there's a much bigger scare on the horizon and it looks suspiciously like HTC. They have gone from generic manufacturer to big brand in a few short years off the back of WinMob and Android; There is a tide of companies seeking to do exactly the same thing. Mohandas Gandhi said "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.". I hope we all get our enjoyment while the joke is still funny.
- DannoHung 16y ago
  Android is cool, no doubt, but the few times I've used those phones, the UI is just not there. It's even more important on a touch-screen device that attention to detail in every tiny measure of interaction be made, but Android doesn't have it (unless the new versions are vastly better in the last few months).
  - grandalf 16y ago
    I agreed with you until I got an HTC Evo 4G. I have shown it to several iPhone users and everyone agrees it is a better UI experience. The only weakness compared to the iPhone is the quality of apps, but that is quickly changing. Android's clever design of intents + back button behavior gives the mobile device a far more weblike (in a good way) experience when using apps.
    - zyb09 16y ago
rick_2047 16y ago
I never understood it. How can they churn out cheap knock offs so fast. Either they are really smarter than the whole R&D department of Apple combined or they have a very vast and well developed espionage market.
- jasonlotito 16y ago
  It's not that difficult to build a copy when you are building the original as well. =)
  - brk 16y ago
    It's also not that hard to build a slightly nodded copy after someone else has already spent millions on R&D figuring out all the difficult bits. And of course this appears much more of a physical/appearance clone than anything. I'd like to see some 3rd party reviews of durability and battery life and so on. In the end, it is no different than cars and other consumer goods. Some people appreciate a product with real design and innovation, and some just want the cheapest thing possible in a given form factor. I think there are markets for both.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- ilcesco 16y ago
  The device appeared first in shenzhen, where foxconn (apple manufacturing) operates. Zing!
- lkjhghjk 16y ago
  It's not a copy or a knock off. An iPad is a stock LCD screen (although multi touch which is better than this) an ARM core (just buy a licence) and a bit of flash memory. The only thing that makes an iPad valuable is the OS,branding and appstore. It's trivial to make a tablet out of these parts, just like you can build a PC from bits from Newegg. This is no more an iPad knockoff than a Lexus is a knock off of a Mercedes. Or a dell is a knock off of an HP.
- cmelbye 16y ago
bitwize 16y ago
Now isn't this nicely symbolic of the ghetto that Android has become? :)
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- nooneelse 16y ago
  If by "ghetto" you mean not limited to the first world market only... sure, I guess.
  - bitwize 16y ago
    No, by "ghetto" I meant "ecosystem of knockoff products fraught with quality issues". Android desperately wants to be the low-cost alternative to iPhone OS, yet low-cost also means compromises in usability, responsiveness, etc. I have an Android phone, and though I like the Sprint service better than AT&T's, compared to an iPhone using the phone itself is an exercise in clunkiness and awkwardness. I just flashed it to 2.1 (itself an exercise in unnecessary foldirol) and it feels somewhat smoother, but not Apple-smooth.
    - nuclear_eclipse 16y ago
      It's even smoother with 2.2. I'm in love with my Nexus One all over again.
    - senki 16y ago
      Compromises. That's the keyword. 90% usability for 20% price - it's a good deal for 90% of the people. The other (upper) 10% get the iPad, they can afford it.
      - timelinex 16y ago
        Yep. They are competing into different categories. One is positioning itself as a utility item and the other as a luxury item. Apple is happy owning a small market share while obtain a higher price for its items.
perlpimp 16y ago
Chinese doesn't have culture for innovation, they have always had culture of replication. Even from within innovation has been something that as suppressed for many centuries. China is a world's factory. With disregard for copyright and intellectual property its hard to see when their own people will get motivation to invent and develop technologies.
- ilcesco 16y ago
  You'd be amazed by how little it takes to motivate someone.
- gokhan 16y ago
  Gunpowder, paper & printing, magnetic compass... more important than Internet in their times. I wouldn't call their culture lacking innovation.
  - timelinex 16y ago
    You are right. I think most people should know this. Rip off happens everywhere. Just that china has more people and the probability of it happening there is higher than other places.
    - phreanix 16y ago
      Not in the way it is organized and encouraged in China. There are factories there that specialize in rip offs, companies that specialize in finding something invented/created elsewhere and reverse engineering. Not to say that the US didn't do it, or that Japan was also well known in the 70's for much the same thing, but to say that it is only because China has "more people" and more "probability" is misleading. The practice is widespread and encouraged, not just by their culture, but also indirectly by their government.
  - niekmaas 16y ago
    Don't forget toilet paper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper Must be the most innovative discovery of all times
igorgue 16y ago
iPed is a better name than iPad :-)
- masklinn 16y ago
  Yeah, doesn't make you think it's a tablet for pedophiles. Did for me, though.
  - SkyMarshal 16y ago
    Funny, it made me think it was a tablet for walkers.
anamax 16y ago
Am I the only one annoyed by "China Rips Off"? China is a country. Some folks in China did something. Unless said folks are govt, "China" didn't do anything.
- dpritchett 16y ago
  I don't think this product could be legally brought to market in the United States. The Chinese government's trade policies enabled the creation of a $100 Android-running iPad lookalike.
  - papersmith 16y ago
    Though from certain POV these devices exist despite government policies, as the phenomenon has certain anti-authority connotations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai
  - Niten 16y ago
    So what? U.S. government free speech policies allow citizens to say most whatever they like, including things that cannot legally be said in Islamic theocracies. When a U.S. resident inevitably exercises his freedom of speech in a way that offends Muslims, would someone in Saudi Arabia therefore be justified in claiming that "the U.S. insults Islam"? No, of course not.
glhaynes 16y ago
It's really weird to me that so many people at Kotaku seem so excited about this. How many times has there been some radically cheaper Chinese knockoff with a similar name that turns out to be a piece of absolute shit? Were these people excited about the Vii? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vii Apple is successful in large part because of attention to detail; this thing can't even seem to decide whether it's an iPed or an APad. And it's not really a clone in any sense: it's only a 7" screen, yet apparently still heavier than the (arguably already too heavy) iPad. Really, what are the chances it's great at $100 when most people were surprised Apple was able to get the iPad (perhaps manufactured at the same factory) down to $500? Be excited about the future potential of Android tablets using cheap commodity hardware, sure, but I don't see anything exciting about this particular device from what little info is here. What an example of not getting why the iPad is successful.
rjett 16y ago
In a case like this, what steps will Apple take to quash the IPed?
- scorpion032 16y ago
  It's not legal to sell them in US. They will be happiest if they can have 1% of the market share of iPad. Apple has more important things to bother about. Like innovating, the iPad mini, for instance.
  - dkasper 16y ago
    The iPad mini... you mean iPod Touch?
  - daniel-cussen 16y ago
    I thought the ipod touch and iphone were the ipad minis.
sireat 16y ago
This is quit unsurprising, I suspect, in a few months there will be dozens of increasingly iPad looking devices running some version of Android. First butterflies are already here: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39169 http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39169 However, one has to keep in mind that the CPUs currently in these devices are very underpowered(instead of 600mhz ARM actually clocking in at 300mhz). User experience is very unPad like to say the least.. I am puzzled though, why they do not go for more powerful CPUs as the price difference should be only a few $.
Raphael_Amiard 16y ago
Well for 100$ i want one

85 points by jrnkntl 16y ago

drKarl 16y ago

It seems that China has already built the $100 tablet the OLPC wanted to build...

lkjhghjk 16y ago
Not really, the point of OLPC was the software that let you modify it. Their mistake was trying to do the hardware as well. If you build a good enough OS then the hardware will appear and market demand will make it $100. If you are only worried about the HW being $100 then you can get an 1980s dos machine.
jodrellblank 16y ago
The one with the dual colour/sunlight readable screen, clockwork power, mesh networking and introspectable software? Where?

ZeroGravitas 16y ago

I was going to comment that it's going to be revolutionary when these guys combine forces with Android, but it says in the story that this is built on Android. Interesting times.

WiseWeasel 16y ago
It also says it's running on an Intel CPU, which has got to be wrong. Android doesn't run on the x86 architecture as far as I know. Take the info with a grain of salt. [Edit] Well, it seems like there may be some unsupported (by Google) Android-x86 work going on, so maybe it's possible: http://www.android-x86.org/ http://www.android-x86.org/ I wonder if the fact that Android software runs in a JIT-compiled runtime mean that binaries for Android-ARM are compatible with Android-x86. [/Edit]

kevinelliott 16y ago

Combine this with some interface and packaging cleanup (something one really talented designer could do), and some decent marketing, and they could make a fortune off this thing. I would still keep my iPad, but I'd probably buy a few of these for guests to use, and as additional interfaces around the house!

nooneelse 16y ago
Battery life might be the deal breaker on this device. But yeah, if that isn't terrible, why have a $500 picture frame, home theater controller, and toy for the kids when you can have a $100 one that fills those roles just as well? How soon till a proper reviewer can get their hands on this and put it through some paces? Engadget, how about putting that checkbook journalism to some good use?
- lkjhghjk 16y ago
  YOu can already buy them (or very similar) for $130 including shipping http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39459 http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39459

jdietrich 16y ago

This is why Android is so incredibly important. The Chinese can build good hardware at ridiculously low cost, but they just can't do software, as anyone who has ever used an iPhone knock-off can testify. Android massively cuts R&D costs, putting the agile and efficient Chinese manufacturers at a distinct advantage. Android will take the whole of the Chinese and Indian smartphone market by default, unless something else comes along which is more open, versatile and easy to implement. The markets are sufficiently price sensitive that $7 extra for a WinMob license is a dealbreaker, let alone the vast premium the likes of Jobs or Kallasvuo charge. They have peculiar demands that western manufacturers just aren't attuned to - when have you ever seen a Nokia or a Motorola with dual sim card slots? Western hardware companies should be sweating about their local markets too, but not because of the threat of generic clones - there's a much bigger scare on the horizon and it looks suspiciously like HTC. They have gone from generic manufacturer to big brand in a few short years off the back of WinMob and Android; There is a tide of companies seeking to do exactly the same thing. Mohandas Gandhi said "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.". I hope we all get our enjoyment while the joke is still funny.

DannoHung 16y ago
Android is cool, no doubt, but the few times I've used those phones, the UI is just not there. It's even more important on a touch-screen device that attention to detail in every tiny measure of interaction be made, but Android doesn't have it (unless the new versions are vastly better in the last few months).
- grandalf 16y ago
  I agreed with you until I got an HTC Evo 4G. I have shown it to several iPhone users and everyone agrees it is a better UI experience. The only weakness compared to the iPhone is the quality of apps, but that is quickly changing. Android's clever design of intents + back button behavior gives the mobile device a far more weblike (in a good way) experience when using apps.
  - zyb09 16y ago

rick_2047 16y ago

I never understood it. How can they churn out cheap knock offs so fast. Either they are really smarter than the whole R&D department of Apple combined or they have a very vast and well developed espionage market.

jasonlotito 16y ago
It's not that difficult to build a copy when you are building the original as well. =)
- brk 16y ago
  It's also not that hard to build a slightly nodded copy after someone else has already spent millions on R&D figuring out all the difficult bits. And of course this appears much more of a physical/appearance clone than anything. I'd like to see some 3rd party reviews of durability and battery life and so on. In the end, it is no different than cars and other consumer goods. Some people appreciate a product with real design and innovation, and some just want the cheapest thing possible in a given form factor. I think there are markets for both.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
ilcesco 16y ago
The device appeared first in shenzhen, where foxconn (apple manufacturing) operates. Zing!
lkjhghjk 16y ago
It's not a copy or a knock off. An iPad is a stock LCD screen (although multi touch which is better than this) an ARM core (just buy a licence) and a bit of flash memory. The only thing that makes an iPad valuable is the OS,branding and appstore. It's trivial to make a tablet out of these parts, just like you can build a PC from bits from Newegg. This is no more an iPad knockoff than a Lexus is a knock off of a Mercedes. Or a dell is a knock off of an HP.
cmelbye 16y ago

bitwize 16y ago

Now isn't this nicely symbolic of the ghetto that Android has become? :)

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
nooneelse 16y ago
If by "ghetto" you mean not limited to the first world market only... sure, I guess.
- bitwize 16y ago
  No, by "ghetto" I meant "ecosystem of knockoff products fraught with quality issues". Android desperately wants to be the low-cost alternative to iPhone OS, yet low-cost also means compromises in usability, responsiveness, etc. I have an Android phone, and though I like the Sprint service better than AT&T's, compared to an iPhone using the phone itself is an exercise in clunkiness and awkwardness. I just flashed it to 2.1 (itself an exercise in unnecessary foldirol) and it feels somewhat smoother, but not Apple-smooth.
  - nuclear_eclipse 16y ago
    It's even smoother with 2.2. I'm in love with my Nexus One all over again.
  - senki 16y ago
    Compromises. That's the keyword. 90% usability for 20% price - it's a good deal for 90% of the people. The other (upper) 10% get the iPad, they can afford it.
    - timelinex 16y ago
      Yep. They are competing into different categories. One is positioning itself as a utility item and the other as a luxury item. Apple is happy owning a small market share while obtain a higher price for its items.

perlpimp 16y ago

Chinese doesn't have culture for innovation, they have always had culture of replication. Even from within innovation has been something that as suppressed for many centuries. China is a world's factory. With disregard for copyright and intellectual property its hard to see when their own people will get motivation to invent and develop technologies.

ilcesco 16y ago
You'd be amazed by how little it takes to motivate someone.
gokhan 16y ago
Gunpowder, paper & printing, magnetic compass... more important than Internet in their times. I wouldn't call their culture lacking innovation.
- timelinex 16y ago
  You are right. I think most people should know this. Rip off happens everywhere. Just that china has more people and the probability of it happening there is higher than other places.
  - phreanix 16y ago
    Not in the way it is organized and encouraged in China. There are factories there that specialize in rip offs, companies that specialize in finding something invented/created elsewhere and reverse engineering. Not to say that the US didn't do it, or that Japan was also well known in the 70's for much the same thing, but to say that it is only because China has "more people" and more "probability" is misleading. The practice is widespread and encouraged, not just by their culture, but also indirectly by their government.
- niekmaas 16y ago
  Don't forget toilet paper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper Must be the most innovative discovery of all times

igorgue 16y ago

iPed is a better name than iPad :-)

masklinn 16y ago
Yeah, doesn't make you think it's a tablet for pedophiles. Did for me, though.
- SkyMarshal 16y ago
  Funny, it made me think it was a tablet for walkers.

anamax 16y ago

Am I the only one annoyed by "China Rips Off"? China is a country. Some folks in China did something. Unless said folks are govt, "China" didn't do anything.

dpritchett 16y ago
I don't think this product could be legally brought to market in the United States. The Chinese government's trade policies enabled the creation of a $100 Android-running iPad lookalike.
- papersmith 16y ago
  Though from certain POV these devices exist despite government policies, as the phenomenon has certain anti-authority connotations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai
- Niten 16y ago
  So what? U.S. government free speech policies allow citizens to say most whatever they like, including things that cannot legally be said in Islamic theocracies. When a U.S. resident inevitably exercises his freedom of speech in a way that offends Muslims, would someone in Saudi Arabia therefore be justified in claiming that "the U.S. insults Islam"? No, of course not.

glhaynes 16y ago

It's really weird to me that so many people at Kotaku seem so excited about this. How many times has there been some radically cheaper Chinese knockoff with a similar name that turns out to be a piece of absolute shit? Were these people excited about the Vii? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vii Apple is successful in large part because of attention to detail; this thing can't even seem to decide whether it's an iPed or an APad. And it's not really a clone in any sense: it's only a 7" screen, yet apparently still heavier than the (arguably already too heavy) iPad. Really, what are the chances it's great at $100 when most people were surprised Apple was able to get the iPad (perhaps manufactured at the same factory) down to $500? Be excited about the future potential of Android tablets using cheap commodity hardware, sure, but I don't see anything exciting about this particular device from what little info is here. What an example of not getting why the iPad is successful.

rjett 16y ago

In a case like this, what steps will Apple take to quash the IPed?

scorpion032 16y ago
It's not legal to sell them in US. They will be happiest if they can have 1% of the market share of iPad. Apple has more important things to bother about. Like innovating, the iPad mini, for instance.
- dkasper 16y ago
  The iPad mini... you mean iPod Touch?
- daniel-cussen 16y ago
  I thought the ipod touch and iphone were the ipad minis.

sireat 16y ago

This is quit unsurprising, I suspect, in a few months there will be dozens of increasingly iPad looking devices running some version of Android. First butterflies are already here: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39169 http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39169 However, one has to keep in mind that the CPUs currently in these devices are very underpowered(instead of 600mhz ARM actually clocking in at 300mhz). User experience is very unPad like to say the least.. I am puzzled though, why they do not go for more powerful CPUs as the price difference should be only a few $.

Raphael_Amiard 16y ago

Well for 100$ i want one