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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 h

by 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
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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
That's like saying "This Chinese Louis Vuitton knockoff looks just like the real one! Their designers must be much better than Louis Vuitton's." That device's hardware looks like the iPad. That in no way signifies that the company's R&D dept. is anywhere near as good as Apple's.
- robryan 16y ago
  Or a R&D department at all, seems like it could be as simple as taking the same ipad design replacing some of the components with cheaper off the shelf components alternatives. They probably know more about how the ipad is made than most people at apple if they have the insider connections where it is being built.
barkingcat 16y ago
It's called schematics. There is a huge underground market for system board / chip / electrical level schematics for every single type of consumer electronics in China. Since schematics printed on paper, in a binder, etc are relatively easy to smuggle out of the factory (or make a duplicate for), it's most likely that the knockoffs use the manufacturing schematics at some point in their production. Bunny has a great post of the types of schematics available in shen zhen.

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

That's like saying "This Chinese Louis Vuitton knockoff looks just like the real one! Their designers must be much better than Louis Vuitton's." That device's hardware looks like the iPad. That in no way signifies that the company's R&D dept. is anywhere near as good as Apple's.

robryan 16y ago
Or a R&D department at all, seems like it could be as simple as taking the same ipad design replacing some of the components with cheaper off the shelf components alternatives. They probably know more about how the ipad is made than most people at apple if they have the insider connections where it is being built.

barkingcat 16y ago

It's called schematics. There is a huge underground market for system board / chip / electrical level schematics for every single type of consumer electronics in China. Since schematics printed on paper, in a binder, etc are relatively easy to smuggle out of the factory (or make a duplicate for), it's most likely that the knockoffs use the manufacturing schematics at some point in their production. Bunny has a great post of the types of schematics available in shen zhen.