iPhone, jPhone, kPhone, and all the way to zPhone

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January 5th, 2012

They are pouring out of China

We all knew it would happen so why are we surprised to hear that there are iPhone copies? These copies are pouring out of China at a fraction of the price. Beware, they are expected to work fractionally compared to the real thing. An iPhone is an expensive item. It is sweeping the world. Everyone wants one, from the smallest kids to the golden agers, and of course, many people cannot afford one. This is where the copies and the fakes come into their own.

The gadget fans

Long, winding queues of gadget fans are lining up to throw their money at the latest flashy i-product, a treatment usually reserved for Apple. But here in China a home-grown brand is inspiring its own platoon of highly-motivated buyers. More than 300 people lined up around the block in Hong Kong on January 1st to get their hands on Meizu’s latest phone. And that was mirrored in cities across China. It’s all for this: the Meizu MX.

Is this an iPhone?

The easiest way to handle the design was obviously to make an exact copy so it’s difficult to know if you are looking at a genuine iPhone or a knock off. It’s easy to see where the company found its inspiration. Some Chinese consumers love it. Among those lined up today, aviation management student Kenny Tang said, "It looks like the iPhone but inside the software, the UI, the design is completely different. "Three days on from its launch, people are still lining up here in Hong Kong for the Meizu MX. It looks like an iPhone, but it only costs 400 dollars."

Latest hardware

Loaded with the latest hardware, it’s a lot cheaper than the iPhone 4S at 650 U.S. dollars or the Samsung Galaxy Nexus at 700. And that’s helping these so-called "shanzhai" firms – the Chinese term for manufacturers known originally for knock-offs. Now they’re moving up the value chain to sell their own branded products.

Salaries in China

"As everyone knows, the average salary in China isn’t that high right now. So this is definitely more affordable than some of the other mainstream phones in the market. But at the same time we don’t sacrifice on specifications." The problem, though, is scale. Big players like Apple and Samsung pay far less for the components inside their phones than smaller handset makers. And that means tighter profit margins for the shanzhai players, says Analyst Mark Newman. “I don’t think these Chinese brands are going to compete head-to-head in the mainstream market but more in the mid to low end, especially in China – in the domestic market. But they don’t have a lot of scale and so it’s going to be difficult for them to compete with Samsung."

The Huawei phone

There is hope though. Huawei was once a small player. It now commands eleven percent of the mainland market. With more than 950 million mobile phone users in mainland China, shanzhai firms like Meizu have plenty of room to grow. Especially as more consumers look for smartphones at reasonable prices.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2012 at 6:02 am and is filed under Business, Economy, Employment, Personal / Internet, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

iPhone, jPhone, kPhone, and all the way to zPhone

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