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Fake Apple Stores Mushrooming In China
siliconbits writes "A new worrying phenomenon has cropped up in China and Apple has been its first victim; meet the first fake Apple Stores, entire buildings that have been designed to look like the real ones. Chinese companies have long been known for being master copiers but this takes the concept of plagiarism and copying to a whole new level. As expected, everything, from the architecture of the building, the colour of the paint, to the products, the T-shirt worn by the staff down to the logo and the badge design come from Cupertino."
Rill somebody prease crawl da Genrioses!
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
Can the fakes be spotted by looking for the R in Appre?
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You must be new here... I don't think that, aside from Ask /. and the book reviews, I have ever seen a non-plagiarised summary.
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In 2006 NEC found that a group in China had cloned the NEC corporation. They had factories, office buildings, stationary... the whole nine yards.
They were even receiving royalty payments.
Trolling is a art,
Worrying phenomenon for who? Not for me, for you? No? Then it ain't worrying. A new famine looms in Africa, China swears to brutally surpres discent in Tibet, hundreds are tortured and/or killed in Syria, the western world is embroiled in a near global war now and I am supposed to be worried about some stores in China that might mean Steve Jobs income is a few dollars lower? He didn't worry much about all the loss in income to westerners when he outsourced all production to China but I am supposed to worry when what everybody warned would happen (what is produced in China is copied in China) is happening?
Tell it to the marines, cry me a river, talk to the hand because the face ain't listening. I could go on but that might show I cared. Which I don't.
Cue Apple fanboys defending their gadgets being produced in slave labor camps with reaganomics.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Steve will just put higher walls around his garden.
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
Maybe someone didn't get the memo -- after you build a NuPenny store you're not supposed to open the doors ;-)
education is no substitute for intelligence
Do you mean 'yet to meet'?
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
I don't think that, aside from Ask
That's how they keep their spelling mistake and typo counts down.
Trolling is a art,
And even the Ask /. section copies the same "What's the best way to store my digital photos for the next 2000 years?" question every 2 months since it was first posted in like 2002.
Is the CEO of the Fake Apple Stores Fake Steve Jobs?
Decades ago, when military groups landed in places unfamiliar with airplanes and other technologies, groups would form with mocked up crude simulations of the things they saw. From imitating outfits, things they carried, etc. These people knew they wanted the same things these strangers had, and this was the best way they knew how to get to something like what they had. They just didn't have any grasp on the steps really needed to get there.
The difference is that many folks in China do know how to get there... but they also understand realistically they can't provide the same things with the tools they have so far. But mimicking is still the most logical path under the circumstances - provide what they can, and use the income to grow to make that mimicry reality, like most emerging economies playing catch-up end up doing.
Congrats giant corporations, maybe now you will see the dark side of outsourcing to a country like China. You fight so hard to acquire and defend patents and trademarks in the US, but guess what? The country you put all your manufacturing in doesn't care. And China has a growing economy unlike the US, so look at all that money you're losing! So you have a few choices: - Move manufacturing back to the US, where you can enforce your patent and trademark claims. - Give up the patent and trademark system and learn to make money without having a monopoly. - Keep losing money.
The fake Apple stores are really fake.
Even better is that half the replies still tell the person to use floppy disks.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
So Apple actually exported something to China? I'm impressed!
I don't think this takes their copying to a whole new level. They've already copied an entire city called Hallstatt in Austria. They've built the same houses, same streets. Compared to that, copying an Apple store is nothing remarkable.
It smells like...Karma.
The firm has only four stores in China, two in Beijing and two in Shanghai; these four stores in China have generated on average the highest traffic and highest revenue of any of the 323 Apple stores worldwide according to a statement by the Chief Financial Officer peter Oppenheimer back in January.
I know revenue isn't everything, but maybe Apple should be learning something from these guys, and not the other way round...
reseller which is similar to a setup in Singapore.
After all, unless they are selling copies of Apple products where is the money? They would have to jack up the prices.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
when you don't pay for software or maybe hardware then it's easy to high revenue.
But do they sell actual apples or do they sell tech gear.
I drank what? -- Socrates
The interesting thing I read was that the workers of the fake stores thought that they were actually Apple employees. That calls into question their "Genius Bar".
The link supplied is not the original story, and even gets it wrong. (The store was not torn down.)
Original link: http://birdabroad.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/are-you-listening-steve-jobs/
Why is this worrying? I really don't see the issue.
Let them use GPL software instead.
Just imagine how FLOSS would flourish if the people bootlegging proprietary products were applying their resourcefulness to developing FLOSS, to the benefit of all.
Why does my iPhone have Windows Mobile 6.5 on it?
Linking to someone's blog to generate ad revenue happens too often around here.
Seriously, do editors even read the story and figure out that the real story is one link beyond?
Wearing pants should always be optional.
It's been my observation that the quality of the "geniuses" at the Apple stores varies wildly. Some of them are quite clueless. I work at an AASP, and we have repeatedly had a "genius" tell a customer they could bring their ipod in for a warranty repair, or that they could bring their iMac back they bought online back to us for a full refund.
Sometimes, "genius" they aint
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
But did the Chinese copy of Diney know about it? :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Here is why this is good for the general public (though not good for Apple) - it provides people with more manufactured goods at lower prices and it definitely mimics something successful, so you know that it will succeed.
Imitation is the best flattery and also they say that good artists copy and great ones steal.
Now, does this hurt the consumers? From the point of view that it hurts Apple's ability to generate more revenue/income, and possibly somewhat suppresses their ability to throw more money into R&D, yes. On the other hand, the copies that are created by these companies, who mimic Apple this way (and other businesses as well) are cheap (at least they should be), and they do create more variety, as even those, who mimic the look and feel of the companies they also innovate, they do create different products that the original company did not, they provide more competition, which is really what creates wealth.
If government is going to be used to stop this, this is just another way for government to steal from the general public, to raise prices and to prevent competition, and it's not good for market.
You can't handle the truth.
That sounds more like being unversed in company policy than it does lacking innate intellectual capability. Now if they are drooling when they say "We gives yoo refund pleez", then definitely agreed.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
I mean, what's Steve Jobs going to do about this? Cancel his contracts with Foxconn? Bwahahaha!
When you move all of your manufacturing to China to save a buck, eventually they'll take what they learned building your shit and build their own. If that means stealing your name, logos, store designs etc., so be it. That design stuff seems to be working for Apple, after all. And Apple can't do anything about it since their business is entirely dependent on China's electronics manufacturing base. What, you mean build factories in America? With all those expensive labor laws and safety standards and environmental regulations and such?
I'll be honest, we're throwing science against the wall to see what sticks. -Cave Johnson
I'm sorry, but Chinese people as a whole totally lack imagination. It comes from their culture. They are static, all the wisdom worth knowing was perfected hundreds of years ago by much wiser and sober men than live today. Lots of good parts to their culture, the family bonds for one. Families stick together, for better or for worse. It really saddens me to view America from afar and see how badly families with children are regarded among the overeducated classes. But the lack of creativity is real. Individual Chinese may display magnificent qualities. I've known a few who were just outstanding. But as a whole, they always go back to that "someone else already did this, and better, so let's copy them" attitude inherited from the past.
I've actually known people who wanted to open a business, but despaired as they couldn't find anything worthy of copying. My attitude of "do what you know, whatever it is, and do it better than anyone else" is apparently Western in origin, and too foreign to understand.
I found myself at a personal low tide a few weeks ago. A friend commissioned me to create a website for his trading company. I'm sitting there, trying to make this new website look just like the one he likes on the net. I'm freaking copying the product descriptions and dimensions straight out of his competitor's catalogue, posting the photos which he somehow obtained (exactly the same as said catalogue), and wondering what sort of path led me to this point. *sigh* I've been here too long.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Oh no, he's /met/ plenty of honest Asians, he just never mentions them.
I prefer punch cards.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
Yep.
Another like-minded developer made on in homage to Blizzard.
More relevant than even those, however, is the entire fake mall that opened in 2009. Genuine imitation brands only! Get your McDnoald’s hamburgers, Bucksstar Coffee, and a Pizza Huh (not Hut) Pizza all under one roof! A Google search for fake mall also nets a 2007 YouTube video of an all-fake mall; I don't know if it's the same one (YT blocked by firewall).
Really, this Apple store shouldn't surprise anyone.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
This is not new at all. In China you've had 4 Nokia shops in the same street for ages (0 to 1 being real, the rest fake). Even large stores like Carrefour and Wal-Mart have been copied.
I love Apple, but they weren't "first" at this one.
He did say "repeatedly"...so if said associate had been told multiple times about the company policies and still gave out the wrong information, it WOULD reflect on that individual's intellect.
That's because western cultural standards don't match. China has had a good "communist" mindset long before communism was invented. There are strong family ties, and a belief that knowledge should be shared. As such, the ideas of the west for protecting IP are as foreign to China as "copyleft" is in the west (where a core of "fanatics" believe in it, a core of companies exploit it, and the general public doesn't understand it or support it).
This means that private property is "sacred" to a level above the US. They are more polite and respectful of other people's things in general. But they don't respect hoarding of knowledge at all. So there's no problem with cheating on tests, violating copyright, trademark, and patents, and other such things.
So they are consistent in their beliefs, predictable, and considered unethical by US standards. But me, I'd take a Chinese partner over a US one any day. The Chinese one will act predictably, even if contrary to my cultural ethics. The American will act in his own best interests at all times, even to the point of sabotaging me if the situation arises. The Chinese sabotage only inadvertently (say if the test is on a curve and he cheats, it will harm you, but he did not cheat to harm you, he cheated because it was unethical to have a test that wasn't open book open note - or the popular one now, they'll just take your IP, even if it violates contracts).
But then I'm not Chinese, and have spent time over there as part of a master's program, but did not make direct business deals. But that's my impression of those I met and dealt with.
Learn to love Alaska
I'm guessing that the Apple hardware is equally well counterfeited.
I'm curious if the products themselves are counterfeit or if the manufacturers are selling extra production to these fake stores to turn more profit.
Past experience tells me the products could very well be the real deal.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
I got the impression that these stores are selling actual Apple products. Is that not the case? If they are Apple products that the stores bought wholesale from Apple, what is the alleged problem? We have other stores where we can buy Apple products in the US. These stores in China just appear to suck less than Best Buy or Walmart. Building stores that are elegant and provide an agreeable customer experience is not something that is the "intellectual property" of Apple.
When people get arrested for selling ipad cases, I don't think opening up fake apple stores is such a good idea if you value your life/freedom.
They build a complete fake Disneyland.
http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/05/02/disneyland-in-china/
I am supposed to be worried about some stores in China that might mean Steve Jobs income is a few dollars lower?
Chinese fakes don't worry you?
You think that's a real Panasonic TV you just bought?
You think that's Coca Cola you're drinking? You think it's actually been mixed in a factory with sanitary equipment, free of poisons?
You think that's a Toyota you're driving? You think it actually has air bags under that panel on the steering wheel?
If they can rip off one company, they can rip off another.
This is not new at all and it's happened elsewhere in Asia for a long time. I've encountered store managers out there paranoid about anyone in a camera thinking that they were there to steal their ideas and open their own copycat store. The only unusual thing here is that those Chinese have the balls to go after someone so recognizable.
But then, what the hell does this matter in the scheme of things? It's only catering to the lower- and middle-classes of China, exactly the sort of people who'd never buy an Apple device to begin with because they can't afford it. Image-conscious wealthy Chinese would never dare buy a knockoff. The most they might risk is a grey market model, but even then they'd rather be seen shopping in an actual Apple store.
In fact, I'd argue this is a good thing. It should spur a company like Apple to continue innovating. If you're always coming up with something new and better the competition will be preoccupied with desperately trying to catch up and never being able to pull it off. I can appreciate trying to protect your brand and hard work, but there's a limit. Start calling in the lawyers for every little thing and you're basically telling the world you've given up on doing real work and you're more interested in resting on your laurels.
Here's a link to what appears to be the original article. Really, /., please stop supporting the people who just copy from others.
If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
There is still one thing that the Chinese have not managed to copy: the sandwich. After a few weeks of eating (very good) Chinese food, I start craving a good sandwich. Bread, meat, cheese. Something decent for less than 60 RMB not served like it's French nouveau cuisine. Rumor is there's a Subway (which I'd settle for) near the Great Wall, but that's unconfirmed.
For the love of God, why can't the Chinese start copying delis?
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Plagiarism? This is trademark infringement. Plagiarism was when they copied code for the Green Dam project (which thankfully fell to pieces and was generally scoffed at by most people here, one of the few times I've been proud of Chinese sensibilities).
Mushrooming? The story talks about just one store. In a country of well over a billion people that's hardly mushrooming.
"We have an A-Bomb...what more do you want, mermaids?" --I.I. Rabi, speaking in defense of Robert Oppenheimer
Bcause we're talking about Apple, shouldn't the title be 'Fake Apple Stores BLOSSOMING In China'?
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
....unable to be reached for comment.