Keepin' it real fake: Part XII - Special CES Edition - The W398 is not a ROKR
By Peter Rojas 
posted January 9th 2006 6:05AM
posted January 9th 2006 6:05AM
If there's one thing that you can count one at the International Gateway part of the Consumer Electronics Show, where all the random Asian ODMs hang out, is knock-offs a-plenty. We've got a few in store for ya, but we couldn't wait to write about the W398, a little cellphone from Shuoying that's a deadringer for the Motorola E398 (aka the phone the ROKR E1 was based on). The pic speaks for itself, but we did manage to grab a spec sheet before we departed Shuoying's booth and learn that the W398 is a dual-band GSM/GPRS handset with a 2.0-inch LCD screen, a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, and a TransFlash memory card slot. You won't find iTunes (or an iTunes button) on this fakester, just a generic MP3 and MPEG4 media player, but you probably won't have to deal with that pesky 100 song limit, either.
So what happens when the fakie's meet up with the reps from legit companies...
... probably a pretty quiet elevator ride.
that's kinda ballsy of them... I hear you risk hard time for copyright infringement in the USA these days.
Actually The E398 Can be Flashed and Flexed to have the ROKR's software on it. Some Importers sell these phones with that firmware.
Of all the phones you could copy, why the ROKR? I mean, it's not like they (the knockoff company) spent any R&D on this thing. They've had like 3 months to realize just what a flop the ROKR is... why even bother putting it on the market?