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Chinese Pirates Copy iPhone, Make Improvements

Posted by Zonk on from the that's-the-entrepreneurial-spirit dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Popular Science notes that manufacturers in China duplicate many well-know products. This includes the Apple iPhone, imitations of which are rolling off the assembly line already. That might actually be a good thing for some users, who might enjoy the user experience of China's own miniOne. 'It ran popular mobile software that the iPhone wouldn't. It worked with nearly every worldwide cellphone carrier, not just AT&T, and not only in the U.S. It promised to cost half as much as the iPhone and be available to 10 times as many consumers.' The cloned iPhone uses a Linux-based system. 'The cloners hire a team of between 20 and 40 engineers to begin decoding the circuit boards. At the same time, coders start to develop an operating system for the phone with a similar feature set. (The typical cloner either uses off-the-shelf code, writes something entirely new, or modifies a publicly available Linux-based system.)' Using the iPhone as an example, the PopSci site walks through the process of making imitation technology."

3 of 716 comments (clear)

  1. You get what you pay for. by glindsey · · Score: 0, Troll

    Given China's recent record, I expect them to be painted with lead paint, filled with propylene glycol, have a case that falls apart, and kill people horribly when it crashes.

    But let's all keep buying these unregulated, untested imported products because, wow, look at the savings!

  2. Not an improvement by objekt · · Score: 1, Troll

    No multi-touch.
    No finger flip.
    No iTunes compatibility.
    No coverflow.
    No Safari.

    And, oh yeah, it's vaporware.

    --
    -- Boycott Shell
  3. What improvements??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    MiniOne = iPhone-like
    + removed DRM (stupid Digital Rights Management)
    + removed tons of Apple's licence
    + removed embedded unremovable-battery forever (imagine it for an ininterrumptible supply to the micro-spy-for-CIA)
    + removed call-to-Apple-center
    + removed AT&T monopoly
    + removed unique ID of the apparatus
    + removed detector of unauthorized battery supplier
    + removed propietary Apple's OS
    + removed Apple tradermark-logo
    + removed unwanted Apple's sings-songs

    It "removed" translates to CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP MiniOne!!!