Request a craze for the iPad has made Apple's international launch delay. While Chinese consumers who can not wait to hold the iPad, in the hereafter on a pirated version of an electronic shopping mall in Shenzhen, southern China, near the border with Hong Kong.
Here, in little shops filled with everything a pirated version of electronic goods: including fake iPad using Microsoft's latest operating system Windows 7. However, many shops also sell a variety of Apple products, from iPhone, MacBook to the MacBook Air.
After tracing the hall with a variety of vendors selling at some shop owner, a man surnamed Lin seller who claimed to offer a searchable item. It's on a dark back room on the fifth floor market. Place it away from the hustle and bustle.
Goods seem more solid and thick with a three port USB and shape much longer than the original. This is pirated from the iPad, which is run by the Windows operating system. It's more like a giant iPhone. The price is 2800 yuan, or about Rp 3 million, making it slightly cheaper than iPad which reached U.S. $ 499 - U.S. $ 699 or USD 5-7 million.
"This is just a first rough version," the agent said Lin, who cut off the conversation in Cantonese, the native language of the area. "Although not exactly the same shape, external appearance is very similar to the iPad, so we do not think it will affect our sales," he added, explaining that the reason for the difference is still difficult to match with the original because the fast-turnover time in two months - for the development version These first.
The merchants are trying hard to fill vacancies that will not last long. This was made because of unforeseen strong demand for the original iPad wanted in the first week on the market.
Entertainment device, originally sized 25.4 centimeters, in which a person can read books, play music and videos and surf the Internet, has sold more than 500,000 in its first week alone. Sales skyrocketed after strong demand in the U.S. alone, making Apple's international launch of the product to delay it until the end of April.
With the global launch of the gap made from Chinese counterfeiters have rushed to fill this gap iPad. Taobao, China's largest online marketplace, contains hundreds of listings for products that coveted, many are really original, but some doubt keaslianya to be labeled as "Chinese Goods," with claims to have better features than the original.
Like the existing model in the Shenzhen market, these fake iPad also sold retail for each of about 2800 yuan, compared with the original price of the reaches 4000-6000 yuan.
Analysts expect Apple and gadget fanatics provide good service in Asia, that soaring demand for original iPad with increasing number of consumers in the middle class. But few are surprised by the rapid appearance of counterfeit versions in that country, who have pirated movies often appear on the market in the same week as the release in cinemas.
"China is basically a market that has the ability to clone everything, so do not really surprising," said Edward Yu, chief executive of the International analyst based in Beijing. "I do not think piracy is bad for the iPad conducted by China that have large populations, may iPad cloning would provide more potential users to see and feel."
Back in Shenzhen, Lin said that the factories in the surrounding Pearl River Delta - the biggest export factory of China - to work hard to make the latest version of the iPad pirated, to supply the strong demand. "This is just a first rough version," says Lin. "Finally, manufacturers will be able to make a better copy."