The boss picked one up in Thailand back in November, so I'd suggest they have been on the market for a little longer than that. It looks cheap and nasty as you'd expect, but you would be surprised how easily people are duped by a nock off with an apple logo on it.

Apple has been known to internally pass around bogus information before now - the so-called "Asteroid" break-out audio peripheral for Garageband that never was - with the express purpose of tracking down leaks. It's a fairly standard process: make different information available to employee group 'A' and employee group 'B' and see which tidbit makes it to the outside world. By selectively narrowing things down you can get a good idea of who's got the biggest gob. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what happened here.

That, or Steve is fucking with the accessory manufacturers who spilled the beans too early last time, by fooling them into tooling up for a product that doesn't exist. XSKN I'm looking at you.

I just don't buy that they could make the form factor that much smaller without killing the usability.

Why dont they just release it in its own right and hope no one sues them for patent stuffs!

From Canada already.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/bmluxury

Go on, get one and try it for yourself. Here's a link:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MINI-IPHONE-NANO-EDITION_W0QQitemZ180319025285

Don't let the lack of seller ratings put you off. I would get one.....

I want one now that I've read this...

Wow, worth having one of the Canadian ebay ones for the "Camera: 130 milion pixels high-definition digital" alone I would have thought ;-)

The point is, it DOESN'T work, once you get beyond the main switch on screens it's nothing like an iPhone. Trust me on that one.

You mean the bluetooth works and it can copy paste?

These are probably just rebranded iClones, most likely, not the real deal.

Look up brands like CECT and Meizu. Chinese companies making similar looking devices, some with similar capabilities and smaller form factors, clearly in violation of any number of patents, but quite pretty and quite nice nonetteless.

Oh, and I doubt they run an apple OS, if you care about that.

Dominic - getting one of these would make you a prize idiot. Just because it looks like an iphone its nothing like one - no multi touch, no OS X, no app store.

How can it be "counterfeit" if the "original" item does not exist ?

Ok the Apple logo is a naughty, but counterfeit it isn't.

I don't want appstore, OSX or multi touch.

I want a cheapish touchscreen phone sim free with some reasonable functionality, As I said, I'd file the apple logo off, otherwise I would look pretentious.

Saw the auction, thought it looked real nice.

Forwarded info to friend along with comment on how long before it is pulled.

Friend sends back auction gone.

Maybe eBay people read the Register?

you are right with that my old boss was from singapore in the manufacturing business, he said that in the factories his dad ran they would expect 35-50% of the goods to be made by the staff and to be taken, this was taken into consideration for the final manufacturing price of goods so there are alot of genuine "stolen" goods that may be unbranded knocking about but there are always those who do try and immitate.