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iPhones Produced in China Smuggled Right Back in
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Factories in China produce iPhones that are exported to the United States and Europe and then smuggled right back in helping explain why Apple says it sold about 3.7 million iPhones last year while only 2.3 million are actually registered in the United States and Europe. For Apple, the booming overseas market for iPhones is a sign of its marketing prowess but also a blow to Apple's business model, costing the company as much as $1 billion over the next three years, according to some analysts. Since negotiations between Apple and China Mobile, the world's biggest mobile-phone service operator with more than 350 million subscribers, broke down last month, the official release of the iPhone in China has been stalled producing a thriving gray market. Copycat models are another possible threat to Apple in China. Not long after the iPhone was released, research and development teams in China were taking it apart, trying to copy or steal the design and software for use in iPhone knockoffs, or iClones and some people who have used the clones say they are sophisticated and have many functions that mimic the iPhone. "A lot of people here want to get an iPhone," says Shanghai lawyer Conlyn Chan."
I live in brazil, and are surprized at the number of brazilians with iPhones as well.
Someone needs to explain how distribution channels can legally divert these phones away.
Apple is the only producer of these phones (well, through OEM partners), wich presumably moves the phones to some Apple warehouses and they, in turn, are moved off to Apple stores and authorised resellers (AT&T, Orange, T-Mobile and O2 if I'm not mistaking).
So, where do all the grey market phones come from? And how can Apple account for them if they've never been in their warehouses?
Mine was bought in an Apple store so I'm not even worried about it but I wonder about those I see in downtown Montreal cell phone outlets (at a premium price). Should those be considered stolen devices?
I think that all the iPhones being smuggled back in are in every mobile phone vendor in HK. I was there a few weeks ago and every mobile vendor I walked past was offering an iPhone unlocked to whatever firmware version their sim tricks work and selling them for about $650AUD
Grey markets will always exist until all companies hop aboard the concept of the global on-demand rather than the localized rubbish they peddle now.
i would tend to agree with you on the browser part BUT only if you limit it to the browser that is included on the phone. I have a Cingular 8525 (remarked HTC) and yes the built in IE blows ass.. BUT Opera for WM5/6 is extreamly nice and much prefer it to Safari on the iPhone.. the thing is you have to buy Opera it isn't given free and i undertand that 99% of people arn't goingto buy a phone and then go buy a browser for it.
the iphone is nice... but the lack of copy/cut/paste is frustrating - being edge only sucks very very very bad.. it's imap client leaves alot to be wanted.. but the no 3g and no bluetooth theathering for laptops is the deal killer for me...
but damn is it slick
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
Well, and this is capitalism at its best. Apple wanted to save money by outsourcing their development operation to a country that would cost them pennies on the dollar. They're now starting to see the consequences of that move, in that they're doing business with a country having a long history of black and gray-market ripoffs, stolen technology, and clones, which will end up costing Apple tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in business. I'm not talking about reverse engineering, I'm talking about having schematics and trade secrets stolen as a result of doing business there. If capitalism plays through, Apple will at some point realize what a tragic mistake this was, and move their operation to a more civilized country. If not, at least they'd paid a hefty fine for their mistakes and gotten what they deserve.
Apple always known about the gray market, Apple always supported the gray market, Apple always whined about the gray market. The truth is they always wanted and needed all the incremental revenue they could get. On the front end I remember them going out to the gray resellers and collecting serial numbers swearing they will get to the bottom of their source. On the back end they continued to pump millions of MDF dollars into known gray resellers to subsidise their low margins and to encourage them to keep up the volume. With the dollar being low and economy sucking eggs at home they are happy to offload as many units overseas with or without subscriptions. This gets rid of inventories that they will eventually have to price-protect at disti or super-retailer levels, and frees up purchasers to buy the new better/bigger products. The Spice Must Flow.
There's never been any negotiations between Apple and China Mobile. Needless to say, they have never broken down, since there was nothing to break down.
Both lies were nothing more than another drops in the long stream of manipulative misinformation about Apple concocted by stock market criminals. Steve Jobs clearly debunked these rumors, but apparently, after waiting for a short while, the criminals are trying to milk this cow again.
Doesn't really matter where you build it, people can get something and reverse engineer it no matter what.
That's true but when you provide the factory and the bill of materials, it makes their job a lot easier. That's the problem companies have; the "knock-offs" are (or were) often being built by the same people building the "real" product. I saw it in Korea (in the late 80s and early 90s) and it happens now in China, Indonesia, and other places. It's a part of doing business and like you said, it happens no matter where you manufacture.
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
I live in north america. The only stopping most people of doing anything is the fear of getting caught. If there isn't a fear of getting caught, things automatically become "right", or even MORE than right, because they are "sticking it to the man".
:)
The only question I have for you is the following: You said you lived in an underdeveloped country. Is it illegal in your country to pirate US-made stuff? I Don't live in the US myself, so I sure as hell don't follow US laws. I follow my country's laws (which however, support copyrights), and thats it. If tomorrow the law says that copyright is null and void, I'll only buy videogames (because I'm a collector), but movies will all get pirated, and software will be free (and as a software developer, I'll change job!).
Personally though, when I was young, my family could barely afford food (if that). If we couldn't afford something, we didn't buy it. Simple as that. Didn't go and get a bootleg. Sure, it meant I spent most of my life with no computer, no videogame, no nothing, but Im still alive.
(I'd make exception to that on softwares and tools that would help someone get OUT of poverty. Entertainment is one thing.... education and such, I feel is a RIGHT, not a priviledge, like games are.). Besides, if pirating tools and software get you rich, then you'll have money to buy them later
The reason the Chinese own the United States has nothing to do 'theft of intellectual property'; it doesn't even have much to do with trade. It has to do with debt. You keep borrowing, and the Chinese, who are thriftier than you are, keep lending. And they've now lent you so much that you have to borrow more even to pay the interest. Face it - the Third World War is already over, and the United States lost.
China owns you.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Linux on my Asus eee is a lot like the Mac. It is very well integrated. Much better than Ubuntu on the same device. The more I think about it, Asus seem to have been inspired by the approach of Apple in designing this machine.
Once vendor supplied Linux takes off, distributions like Ubuntu may have to change their approach. This makes the deals with Dell look like a lost opportunity because the distribution was not significantly tailored for the hardware.
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