Keepin' it real fake: Apple strikes back

After enduring an onslaught of bogus iPods for years, Apple has apparently finally had enough of the knockoffs and is calling in the big guns. Is the company siccing its battery of attack lawyers on the shady manufacturers? No, this time Apple is unleashing a more fearsome force: the company is warning retailers to stay away from the clones, and has provided them with a cheat sheet to help them identify counterfeits. Somehow, we suspect that most dealers already know the difference between real and fake iPods (here's a hint: the real ones don't arrive mysteriously at your back door in an unmarked box), and that this is really Apple's way of sending them a not-so-subtle message: if you want to sell the real ones, stop selling the fakes. Of course, retailers probably see higher margins from the fakes, so they might be torn, but we're betting that even a hint of the wrath of Steve will be enough to get most of them to shut that back door forever.

[jcg @ Apr 19th 2006 12:15PM]

and now a list of lincensed apple dealers.

[SLy @ Apr 19th 2006 12:28PM]

bothered?

[daschupa @ Apr 19th 2006 12:50PM]

Why don't the scam artists ever copy the boxes correctly? There's always some weird font or something. I mean, c'mon, go buy a fake version of photoshop or illustrator and get with the times Aple!

Really though, if you cant figure out the difference between an aple ipad and the real deal, you shouldn�t be selling them in the first place.

[Nate @ Apr 19th 2006 1:02PM]

#3. "Really though, if you cant figure out the difference between an aple ipad and the real deal, you shouldn�t be selling them in the first place."

It's not the retailer who's fooled. Those guys (most likely) know full well it's a knockoff. When you deal with a product day in and day out, you know what it looks like. It's the unsavvy consumers who get reamed by this stuff.

[Torontoguy @ Apr 19th 2006 1:14PM]

When the first Mac clones started to appear, Apple brought out their legal 'big guns' and succeeded in smashing the Mac clone market...with the result that their market share has shrunk to around 2%. Smart move Stevie!!
On the other hand, based on the enormous availability and cheapness of PC clones...they (and associated applications like Windows) dominate the market.
Apple seems to be heading down the same road. Sure, the iPod has a lead in the 'cool' department...but the Mac was 'cool' in the early days too and it didn't save them.
With pressure from the European Community to open up their format to other hardware, Apple should call off the legal wolfpack and actively ENCOURAGE iPod clones so they could sell more and more Itunes tracks to more and more users.

[destructive cactus @ Apr 19th 2006 1:20PM]

Steve Jobs wasn't related to apple during the 'clone wars'. None of that was his move. Nor was it the reason apple has 2% market share now. It's the reason they don't have 0%.

[Manatee @ Apr 19th 2006 1:25PM]

Who are the retailers that are selling all these fakes? Maybe I'm just easily fooled, but I've never seen any suspicious-looking Apple merchandise at any of the stores around here. (Northern VA, US)

[jeez loweez @ Apr 19th 2006 1:35PM]

So where can you get shuffle clones? They wouldn't be at walmart or target would they?

[Mason @ Apr 19th 2006 1:54PM]

Directed to Poster#5:

Except Apple makes next to nothing on iTunes. ITunes is a vehicle to sell more iPods. Any "clone" that comes out hurts Apple's bottom line. A customer who unknowingly thinks they are buying Apple and get duped - do you think they are going to blame the place they bought it? Nope. They just won't buy Apple again.

[Kim @ Apr 19th 2006 1:57PM]

Mnatee, you see them frequently in the Big Apple. In small electronic shops that sell to tourists and foreigners

[John Doe @ Apr 19th 2006 2:02PM]

In short Apple is willing to go after a bunch of people who have released rumors on the net but isn�t willing to go after companies that are making these fake iPods.
DAMN that company has their priorities fu*ed up.

[Nick @ Apr 19th 2006 2:27PM]

#5 said:
"When the first Mac clones started to appear, Apple brought out their legal 'big guns' and succeeded in smashing the Mac clone market..."

Geez, check your facts. The Mac clones were made with Apple's blessing -- the clone makers had to buy a Mac OS license for each unit they made. Then Apple changed its mind and shut them down.

[mG @ Apr 19th 2006 2:50PM]

#12 said:
"Geez, check your facts. The Mac clones were made with Apple's blessing -- the clone makers had to buy a Mac OS license for each unit they made. Then Apple changed its mind and shut them down."

Sorry but #5 is right, you're thinking of the second generation mac clones licensed by apple, then squashed bt Steve Jobs.

In the early days when Apple ruled(omg, I'm showing my age) Franklin ( yes, the electronic dictionary guys)

[bri @ Apr 19th 2006 3:07PM]

#9: 99c a song? they're not making money? seems a bit hard to believe. even with infrastructure costs and licensing, there's easily more than 25c per song pure profit. true, most people don't buy them (they steal them), but even as a "loss leader", something tells me Apple's making something there.

iTunes is pretty basic anyway - where's all the great features? when I finally upgraded to XP and had the opportunity to use it, I thought to myself "wow, what's the big deal?"

[mG @ Apr 19th 2006 3:17PM]

Doh it got cut off :)

continued from #13...

...Franklin made Apple clones. But if Apple allowed clones that does not mean they could keep market share.

They would have wound up like IBM, having to abandon thier PC market under the pressure from clones.

-mG

[dj-ronald-mc-donald @ Apr 19th 2006 3:39PM]

In the early days when Apple ruled ?_?

That comment made me piss my pants. I showed it to my co-workers who asked "So when did Apple start seliing PC's??"

So aside from California where Apple has ruled supreme (a whole 3%), the rest of the world have enjoyed MicroSoft.

[mG @ Apr 19th 2006 3:52PM]

#17 Said: "So when did Apple start seliing PC's??"

Apple has always sold Personal Computers aka "PC's"

We just now use "PC" to mean x86 based computers running a Microsoft OS.

Apple "ruled" durring the late 70s and early 80s, before IBM produced it's first personal computer. In 82 it hit 1 Billion in sales. Imagine a Billion dollars in 1982!!

Beleive it or not but microsoft was one of the largest 3rd party Apple software developers. I think they still hold the same title with Office for Mac.

-MG

[glacia00 @ Apr 19th 2006 5:16PM]

I've known a lot of people who have bought knockoffs. And I know of no one who went into it not knowing the item they were buying was a knockoff.

I make fairly frequent business trips to SE Asia and checking out the knockoff markets is one of the things on most people's list when they go. And even in the US I've been to a few places where knockoffs are being sold and I would be surprised if even one person at these places doesn't know that it's not the real deal.

And of course no one is going to admit it if some yahoo asks them about buying illegal products. Heck, I was stopped at customs once with a couple of DVDs. "No way, these are fakes? I'm shocked, shocked." Of course the guy traveling with me walked right through with somewhere around 30.

[Eli @ Apr 19th 2006 5:45PM]

Telling a fake iPod is easy, kids! The fake ones don't scratch as easily, are more reliable, and don't cost as much.

[Brian Tunks @ Apr 19th 2006 5:46PM]

Of course, the consumer could just break away from the uninformed masses and actually purchase a GOOD player, like the Creative Zen series. The iPod mini was discontinued because the Zen offered so much more at a lower cost. Figure this: The Zen Vision costs as much as an iPod video, but has a larger screen, a built-in FM Tuner and Microphone for recording, AS WELL AS a higher frame rate and resolution. In other words, the Creative Zen Micro is FAR superior to the Apple iPod. And yet, people still buy them! Perhaps of Bon Jovie danced around with a Zen, iPods would be vague.

[Dillon @ Apr 19th 2006 6:24PM]

Does the fake IPOD Shuffle work as good as a REAL IPOD shuffle? Is it better?

[Orangeflowers @ Apr 19th 2006 6:57PM]

Hehehe I like you guys.
I had a creative jukebox shaped like a CD player back in the day, long before iPods were even a glisten in the eyes of Apple. I still think creative has got it down better. I won't go into why because I don't want to be bombarded with Maccrazies.

But about itunes- they aren't getting all .99 a song- you must realize there's an artist and a record company supplying that song and getting most of it.

[kibets @ Apr 19th 2006 7:43PM]

apple is doin plenty well clones or no clones. never having seen an ipod shuffle box before (i'm a creative guy) i'd have guessed the one with the logo was the legit. what's a consumer to do?

[Timerider @ Apr 19th 2006 7:57PM]

I hate those counterfitting, low-life bastards. I was ripped off on eBay when some loser sold me a counterfit game.

If any counterfitting ******s out there are reading this, go to hell!!

[Chilton Webb @ Apr 20th 2006 12:28AM]

The early Apple clones were not squashed by Apple. Lazer, Franklin, and a few others did a pretty good job of Apple computer clones. Later, so did Outback and a few smaller outfits who sold Mac clones (all based on Mac ROMs). In the early 90's, you could buy a Mac clone box for Amiga that would run Mac software at full tilt, if you bought the Mac ROMs. Gil Amelio decided to allow Apple to open its platform to clone manufacturers, but by the time Steve returned to Apple, it was bleeding money left and right. Instead of increasing the Mac platform market share, the clone manufacturers had gone after Mac users themselves. As a result, Apple's clone policy was killing the company. Steve did the right thing.

[Vanilla Spice @ Apr 20th 2006 2:24AM]

Yeah, I bought a "genuine Apple iPod Shuffle" off eBay that I thought was likely to be a fake, and it was. The box, though, was either genuine OR a really good direct copy of Apple's box (same with the CD). The box, CD and earphones may have been genuine, or great copies, but I knew within a second that the Shuffle was a fake: it only had a two-position switch on the back, not three. Also, iTunes wasn't interested in it. It was imprinted with Apple's logo and copyright text, even a serial number (which was a genuine serial from a Shuffle, I confirmed with an Apple guy).

#21: "The iPod mini was discontinued because the Zen offered so much more at a lower cost"

Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Thanks, I needed a laugh. Seriously, are you mad? The Zen wasn't selling one thousandth of what it needed, to start impacting sales of any iPod. As if Apple would care one whit how good a player with such a tiny fraction of the market was.

#8: the fakes behave like generic mp3 players and thumbdrives: volume gets mounted on desktop. No iTunes integration, and no playing of iTMS-purchased music.

[Discosis @ Apr 20th 2006 9:05AM]

I'm confused. Is Apple saying that stores selling genuine iPods are also selling the fake iPods? Why would they provide retailers with cheat sheets to identify clones?

Unless it's to stop people attempting to "return" their fake iPod Shuffle to the local Apple store for a real one...

[GadgetTV @ Apr 20th 2006 3:38PM]

If you buy it on a street corner or from ebay you may want to be carefull. This seems clear to most.

Would love to play around with one of the fakes to see if it works properly or is just a regular mp3 player.