4 posts and columns on knockoff

Voices

Made in China: Fake Stores

in Commerce on August 3, 2011 at 5:30 am PT

In China’s “fake world,” consumers can shop for furniture at an imitation IKEA store, eat a six-inch sandwich at an outlet strikingly similar to Subway, and then grab dessert at “Dairy Fairy.”

Multiplicity: China Begins Cranking Out iPad Clones

in Mobile on March 31, 2010 at 5:15 am PT

With the iPad, Apple hopes to create a new category of device, one that, in the words of CEO Steve Jobs, is “more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone.” And though the iPad is unproven at market, some Chinese electronics manufacturers are betting that it will succeed in doing just that. And they’re cloning the hell out of the device.

Apple in iPhone Talks With Second Chinese Carrier?

in News on September 1, 2009 at 3:00 am PT

Apple will sell somewhere between five and seven million iPhones in China in 2010, according to research house Broadpoint AmTech. But that’s assuming its distribution deal with China Unicom is exclusive. And according to Apple, it’s not. “I can confirm it is not an exclusive deal,” an Apple spokesperson told Dow Jones.
chinaiphone

Wordscraper Leaves Hasbro at a Loss for Words

in News on July 31, 2008 at 5:00 am PT

Well, this certainly wasn’t what Hasbro had in mind when it sued Scrabulous for copyright infringement. No, I’d guess boycotts, malicious attacks on the official online version of Scrabble, and the rebirth of the knockoff of the classic board game under a new name were about the last things on its mind.