I took a ride around the Shenzhen Huaqiangbei today with friends. There's tens of thousands of people walking around that area. We mocked, as far as statistics goes, 9 people out of 10 were holding a mobile phone. Then 5 out of 10 phones were a knock-off Nokia or iPhone or something invented by the so-called "shanzhai" factories.
The name "shanzhai" being a little mocking by meaning village or countryside, the shanzhai phones themselves do not look bad at all. In fact, in my own opinion, they are even innovative.
Have you thought of Apple running Microsoft Windows? That's what's happening in China. The iPhone-looking smartphone I talked about in the previous post comes installed with Windows Mobile operating system. The "shanzhai" factories are completely market driven and they are quick to adopt the latest technology and ready to adjust to new trends.
Young people are increasingly lavish in mobile phone consuming. The most extreme example I heard is that someone changes his phone every few weeks. "Shanzhai" phones prove to be the best option for this type of consumption. For the equivalent of a little over US$100, you can get a feature-rich phone with a larger than 2" touch screen, mp3/4 player, 1.3Megapixel camera and other things.
My friend, who lost or was stolen of his maybe 3rd or 4th phone, all being Nokia or Moto, now shifts to "shanzhai" phones. It will be less of a loss if missing. And, not many will really be interested in stealing a "shanzhai" phone. They are really too cheap to worth the trouble.
Visit http://www.hiphoneshop.com to find out their great deals.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Latest on the market - smartphone running on Windows and WIFI
There are at least 10 models now on the market that claim to be iphone-style or iphone lookalikes. The first inspiration dated back at least a years ago, when the CECT P168 hit the market. It was the time apple's product was still in the making, and the whole world waited for the official release in 2007. But the chinese consumers were already holding the lookalikes in their hands well before then. Interesting.
The lookalikes were nothing but lookalikes. It is not a smartphone. It's a PDA phone at most. No java, no wifi, no double finger enlarging... However there's one thing good about it - it's cheap (around US$200) and it is unlocked. You can insert any GSM SIM card. The battery is replaceable too.
Not a year passed when an upgraded lookalike made history in February 2008 - and it had a name, called "hiphone". It also went under the CECT brand, but apparently there's a dozen of "assemblers" sharing the same tooling because some are better quality than others. The local market in China heated up with the iphone cloning.
Just how close could these clones get to the real thing? I believe I have seen that the lookalikes finally graduated in to smartphones. Read the full specs at http://www.hiphoneshop.com/daxian-x999-p-5.html It's wifi ready, it's running Windows Mobile operating system (imagine that!) and it's fully loaded with features. Sadly not affordable any more either. Price tag says US$370 or something like that.
If you browse through the website you will find a complete category called iphone style that shows at least 10 models, including funny names like Nphone and Ciphone. Most are still without operating system though.
The lookalikes were nothing but lookalikes. It is not a smartphone. It's a PDA phone at most. No java, no wifi, no double finger enlarging... However there's one thing good about it - it's cheap (around US$200) and it is unlocked. You can insert any GSM SIM card. The battery is replaceable too.
Not a year passed when an upgraded lookalike made history in February 2008 - and it had a name, called "hiphone". It also went under the CECT brand, but apparently there's a dozen of "assemblers" sharing the same tooling because some are better quality than others. The local market in China heated up with the iphone cloning.
Just how close could these clones get to the real thing? I believe I have seen that the lookalikes finally graduated in to smartphones. Read the full specs at http://www.hiphoneshop.com/daxian-x999-p-5.html It's wifi ready, it's running Windows Mobile operating system (imagine that!) and it's fully loaded with features. Sadly not affordable any more either. Price tag says US$370 or something like that.
If you browse through the website you will find a complete category called iphone style that shows at least 10 models, including funny names like Nphone and Ciphone. Most are still without operating system though.
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