Keepin' it real fake, part L: The "Ipod style Mobile Phone iPhone"

We've gotta hand it to them: electronics conmen are extremely confident in their belief in the ignorance of the masses. Gaze at the unbelievably poor "Ipod [sic] style Mobile Phone iPhone" rendition above, and then suck in the £75 (around $150) pricetag. It comes complete with an iPod-esque white finish, Mac OS X wallpaper, and a strange Quicktime skin for the included media player, but the kicker has got to be the modified Apple logo -- as if the extra leaf is going to fool anyone.

[Thanks, John D.]

[Samo @ Mar 18th 2007 7:32AM]

You know, that still looks quite nice... It kinda looks like the SE W880i I want to buy... But I bet the internals are Z-grade rubbish!

Re the QT player: At least they built in a media player from the same company they are knocking off, as opposed to some other one (e.g. Win Media Player?). I've seen some fake 'Sony Ericsson' phones with Nokia innards, etc!

[kadajawi @ Mar 18th 2007 8:27AM]

Hahaha, ridiculous.

@Samo: I don't really think the media player is from Apple... how could they do that? They just made it look like that. And btw. QuickTime is rubbish, the worst thing Apple ever made.

[dozx @ Mar 19th 2007 3:56PM]

hhhhmmmmmmm............ QuickTime is one os Apples most successful products. I guess you weren't aware that it is Quicktime technology that does al the heavy lifting behind the scenes in iTunes, and I don't think you would say iTunes is not successful.

[Karl Viklund @ Mar 18th 2007 8:43AM]

ROFL...
They never give up do they? Who are these companies making fake products? Must be some companies with resources to develop and produce products. It's muse be some way to trace this trash back to the source? Who is selling these? Where they they get them from? Maybe it's one of the Electronic giants that have a little dirty side business?

[Samo @ Mar 18th 2007 8:53AM]

Judging from the language on the O/S, I'm guessing 'Made from China'... Which is where a great deal of fakes are from...

Still, some are really good, though, if er, not real.

@kadajawi: I just meant they got the internal / software logos right ;)

[Jeffrey Frady @ Mar 18th 2007 5:56PM]

They need to compete with other fake iPod manufacturers. Everyone wants a fake iPod nowadays.

[Thecompkid @ Mar 19th 2007 6:17AM]

And yet it still one-ups the iphone in one regard...It's actually available right now...

[Beamey @ Mar 18th 2007 8:55AM]

I do want one of these just to give it a good look over. I figure some small time asian electronics company is making these things from cheap plastic and spare parts.

[Jamar @ Mar 18th 2007 12:39PM]

They aren't, actually. They may attempt to look like other phone models, but they are actually very different inside and are made from original parts (spare parts are used in repair of phones, not creation of new ones). If you live anywhere covered by 900/1800MHz GSM the "knockoff" phones are nice novelties to take home with you given the price if you visit China.

[Beamey @ Mar 18th 2007 9:00AM]

LOL
I want one of these things just to give it a good look over. I figure that some small time asian electronics company is making these things from cheap plastic and recycled parts

[NeoK182 @ Mar 18th 2007 9:42AM]

i gotta say, that is a very simple, yet amazingly good job and looks very very convincing. and i very much doubt that anyone would notice that extra leaf. it didn't even hit me at first.

[ZSX @ Mar 18th 2007 9:53AM]

I find the mobile phone section of eBay.co.uk endlessly fascinating, particularly if you set the filter to brand="other". You get to see what looks like a mutants' gallery of Chinese imports - not all of them are rip-offs (although a lot are), there are some interesting form-factors out there too.

Most of the sellers are pretty dodgy though: here is one guy trying to sell a Samsung SCH-S250, but with Window Mobile Pocket PC installed!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5-Mega-Pixel-Cam-Pocket-PC-PDA-Windows-2005-Bluetooth_W0QQitemZ300090064488QQcategoryZ3312QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item300090064488

His 'positive' feedback comments are particularly enlightening, judging by what he has been selling in the past. Truly a case of caveat emptor!

[andy @ Mar 18th 2007 10:03AM]

@kadajawi, if you think quick time is so bad mabe you should read this....

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/8AA115DC-2398-456E-9319-FE5842A41BD1.html

little history lesson for ya

[anon @ Mar 18th 2007 11:42AM]

@ andy:
I'm a fan of the site you mention but as a long time Windows/OS X/*n?x user I can understand how Windows users can find QT to be of poor quality, even without MS' attempts to clip QT's functionality.

On a Mac, QT is great. For the past two years I have used in lieu of VLC Player now that there are codecs that will play WMA/WMV/DivX/XviD/3viD/OGG. For Windows, I still use VLC as QT codecs for WIndows are more difficult to find and the fact that QT turns on that annoying little taskbar icon after every upgrade. I see that Apple is looking for more Windows recognition, but they really shouldn't do it in such a poor way.

[Castle @ Mar 18th 2007 10:05AM]

decent looking phone, if it wasn't for all that fakery I would consider getting one. Especially for the price.

[Richard Lai @ Mar 18th 2007 10:56AM]

By the way, the song title at the bottom right translates to "Don't hurt me". Maybe it's a message to the real owners of the brand?

[tekdroid @ Mar 18th 2007 11:01AM]

nice!

[TheClashRocker @ Mar 18th 2007 11:02AM]

You know, it'd probably fool a lot of people who dont know their electronics (i.e. parents--especially, mothers). "look son, I bought you the Apple Iphone". "GEE thanks mom. It's REAL nice"

[Alex Padilla @ Mar 18th 2007 11:33AM]

@ TheClashRocker

I guarantee that your scenario will be played out at least once. And I must admit, that extra leaf on the logo is quite impressive...

[PreGHz @ Mar 18th 2007 12:04PM]

I bet with that extra leaf, this thing WILL run Doom.

[Jamar @ Mar 18th 2007 12:50PM]

And I'd like to know who whited out the watermark. It's there for a reason (you know, to prevent blatant plagarism). I'd also like to find out where the image came from- then I can find out where the heck to get one.

[ZSX @ Mar 18th 2007 5:39PM]

It is on eBay (of course!) - even has the iPhone-ish interface.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Apple-Ipod-style-Mobile-Phone-iPhone-1-3M-Touch-Screen_W0QQitemZ280094932376QQcategoryZ3312QQssPageNameZWD2VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item280094932376

Funnily enough the watermarks are whited out there as well!

[rockasoo @ Mar 18th 2007 1:43PM]

I want one if nothing else than to mess with the apple fanboys. Yeah, I got an iPod which I love but I'm not spending that much on a phone.

[fryke @ Mar 18th 2007 2:46PM]

actually looks quite nice. and 150$ without a contract isn't really expensive. (people ALWAYS forget that the prices they see often include one or even two-year contracts. no, babe, those phones AIN'T really free or 1$.)

[Samo @ Mar 18th 2007 6:26PM]

@ZSX: Thanks for the link!
I had a look at the feature list, and *apparently* it has a "TFT touch screen, 260K colors" on it... Now, I'm not saying it does (The seller is saying that, of course), BUT if it DID, for GBP£75, that's one heck of a great phone, even if it is a fake!!!

Brands aren't all that important to me, except as a (kinda) guarantee of (somewhat) decent quality. If I knew for a fact that this fake has good quality, I wouldn't care if people laughed at my fake 'iPhone' if it was this one with these (supposed) specs.

...But, I'm guessing the quality sucks, though.

BTW: Location listed as "North York, Ontario, Canada"... Is there such a place in Canada? Genuine question, as I'm from across the pond.

[PEZ @ Mar 18th 2007 10:11PM]

you guys sounds pissed that this exists?

[Logboy @ Mar 19th 2007 4:56AM]

Exactly, this thing is awesome. I have to give them a hand. If someone actually buys this thinking its an iPhone, then they absoulutely deserve it.
:)

Come on haven't you been to the local Big-Box-Mart and seen a that DVD that's been put out to look suspiciously like the movie thats currently only playing in theaters to fool grandmothers and small children.

[KIFF @ Mar 18th 2007 10:41PM]

Apart from the fact that it has the word iphone at the back, it looks nothing like an ipod or iphone. It is a typical cellphone design, nothing more nothing less.

Oh wait, to engadget bloggers, Apple created everything including the word 'pod' and the color white.

[Logboy @ Mar 19th 2007 4:51AM]

"Apart from the fact that it has the word iphone at the back, it looks nothing like an ipod or iphone. It is a typical cellphone design, nothing more nothing less.

Oh wait, to engadget bloggers, Apple created everything including the word 'pod' and the color white.

Don't be a moron.

[kadajawi @ Mar 19th 2007 5:37PM]

What I meant was the QuickTime application for Windows (and for OS X). I find it very annoying, especially on Windows. On OS X it's ok, though I prefer MPlayer and VLC on OS X. On Windows I'm using Media Player Classic and VLC. There are worlds between these applications and QuickTime.
I don't hate the software that builds on QuickTime (the player). I just hate the player itself. The codec is ok, though I prefer the open source alternatives such as x264.

[Uranium @ Mar 20th 2007 5:34AM]

I'd buy one if it was a little cheaper and worked on the GSM 1900MHz band.

[Court @ Mar 20th 2007 4:23PM]

Haha that phone is freaking hilarious. Maybe we should all buy one. :) Actually I'm waiting for the real iPhone, does anyone know when it's going to come out?

[Kevin S. @ Mar 20th 2007 10:43PM]

Forget fakes. According to some advertisements in Beijing I can get a real iPhone right now! ;)