back to article Apple wrongfoots iPhoneys

Apple's failure to launch a dinky "iPhone Nano" has caught forgers off guard, leaving Far Eastern manufacturers with forged versions of a product that doesn't exist. The Beeb reports that the first forged versions of the reduced size iPhone started appearing just after Christmas in Thailand, complete with Apple branding and …

COMMENTS

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  1. John Chadwick
    Thumb Up

    LOL

    Perhaps this is the answer to product piracy, hype up thing and release a different product. Could bring a whole new meaning to vapour ware.

    Still anyone who has bought one might have a collectors item.

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Geoff

    Been available longer than that...

    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.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    lol...

    The touts in Shanghai follow you down the street saying "iphone, iphone, iphone..", my usual response was "Who do you want to phone?"

  5. Gulfie
    Paris Hilton

    Wha?

    There must be an awful lot of profit for a forger to build a working (?) copy of a phone... of course that profit is probably far more if its just a case with cheap generic GSM internals made to look like the MiniMe Jesus Phone.

    Paris, well, because if reports are true she's not had enough experience to fake it - yet.

  6. Ian Davies

    2 possibilities

    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.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    if its a good product

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

  8. Jay

    on sale on Ebay...

    From Canada already.

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

  9. Steve

    Get one here

    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.....

  10. Bassey

    I'm sold

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

  11. James
    Pirate

    @j jay

    Thats just the i9, same size as the iphone but with mini on it...

    which makes it a fake fake with extra margin on it...

  12. Phil Kingston

    High-spec knock-off

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

  13. David Hicks
    Happy

    there are a load of them

    You can find them on ebay.

    Crappy software, sure, but iPhone look-alikes in a smaller form factor have been available from the dodgy shops in the far east for some time. Many of them are Dual-SIM capable too.

    This is the terrible state of affairs that happens when nobody protects Intellectual Property properly. It's a shameful mess, suddenly a vibrant marketplace springs up in which consumers get many more products and genuine price-competition.

    Wait, what?

  14. Kenny Millar

    @Dominic Kua

    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.

  15. Jay
    Thumb Up

    @James

    Second one down is listed as a nano.

  16. James
    Boffin

    Ha

    I was under the impression that a lot of fakes are made in the same factories as the real ones. Just that they are made over night without reporting the extra stock.

    Maybe Apple released some info for the nanophone to the producers? Intentionally?

    The fake nanos have bids already! £120! suckers.

    Or is it people wanting to know how good that fakes are(n't)?

  17. Dominic Kua

    @Kenny Millar

    You mean the bluetooth works and it can copy paste?

  18. David Hicks

    @James

    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.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    iPhone Nano or iPhoney Nano

    If the "Counterfeiters" get their product out 1st, can't they slap Apple with a cease & desist for copying? And, claim $millions in damages!

    Interesting.

    Get out of that one Mr Jobs

  20. twunt

    @Dominic Kua

    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.

  21. Richard Cartledge
    Pirate

    Fake

    I bought a fake iPhone Mk1 out of curiosity for £89. It was dire, but interesting exercise in how something which looks so similar and is so similar on paper can be a world apart. It would be a good experience for design students.

  22. ShaggyDoggy

    Not

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

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

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  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Whoops...No auction

    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?

  25. anthony

    @ James

    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.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Funny

    But I bet has more functionality than the iPhone.

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