Hasta La Gadget!

C’mon, let’s all color ourselves shocked at once. It’ll be fun. We promise. If you’ve been calling the underside of a rock home for the past decade or so, you may have missed out on a Chinese outfit by the name of Meizu. For all intents and purposes, the company has done its darnedest to copy Apple in every respect, particularly with the software on its M8 and M9 smartphones. Strangely, we’ve never actually heard confirmation that Cupertino’s best lawyers were breathing down Meizu’s neck… until now. As the story goes, Meizu CEO Jack Wong’s forum postings have been rather tense of late, and one in particular seems to explain why: Apple’s all up in his grille. The details are hidden beneath a good bit of pent-up rage, but what is clear is a mention of Apple’s lawyers and their “unreasonable negotiation tactics.” In essence, Jack finds it absurd that Apple could claim rights to the touchscreen smartphone form factor, and while Apple could only serve a relative few in China, he (obviously) expects Meizu to serve far more. We won’t pretend to be sad on Jack’s behalf — we mean, the guy had it coming — but we can’t shake the looming depression when thinking of a world with no future Meizu devices to chuckle at.

Apple’s lawyers finally going after Meizu, or so it seems originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Oct 2010 11:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple closed its Beijing store Wednesday after crowds rushed it to load up on iPhones. Previously, there was a two-per-customer limit on iPhone 4s, which Apple incautiously abolished. The store was overrun with “scalpers”, buying up to 30 handsets at a time – with stacks of cash – to sell on at a profit. According to Chinese blog MIC Gadget, the scalpers were selling these phones right outside the doors of the Apple Store.

The store was closed at noon (or 10AM, depending on the source), after hours of chaos. It seems that the scalpers were not buying the phones to sell later, or to export, but deliberately acquiring the total daily stock to force genuine customers to buy from them at inflated prices. There are only four Apple stores in China, and no online orders for the iPhone. Scalpers were marking up the iPhones from 5000 Yuan ($747) to 5,500 yuan ($822), a profit of $75. The Apple store is the only placed to get an off-contract iPhone.

The trouble started when customers got sick of the scalpers jumping the line and scuffles broke out. The store was closed, and reopened with a new policy: Buyers must now show ID when purchasing, they can only buy one iPhone, and they must un-box and activate it there in the store.

For a full account of the craziness, and a lot of photos (including shots of the evil scalpers), head over to read Chris Chang’s article at MIC Gadget.

Beijing Apple Store Closed Due To Scalpers Reselling iPhone 4 [MIC Gadget]

See Also:

• Chinese iPhone On Sale This Friday with Wi-Fi Intact
• China Gets Android-Based iPhone Clone

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Forgive the recycled image. I just really like that shot of old Han Ziwen positively ecstatic at having nabbed the first legal iPad in China. It really seems to capture a sense of (arguably overzealous) enthusiasm for Apple products in that country (not that the images of folks lined up around the block for the launch of every new
Apple product paint our own country in a much better light). In case the picture doesn’t drive the point home, the numbers should.

By Saturday’s official launch of the iPhone 4, Unicom–the only telecom company carrying the new handset in that country–had received more than 200,000 pre-orders. It took Unicom nearly six weeks to sell half that number when the 3GS launched in that country a year ago.

Unicom and Apple were unable to meet the pre-order demand for the phone. According to Unicom, only 40,000 went home with the handset on Saturday. According to Apple, more phones will be available soon.

Apple is currently the fifth largest sell phone manufacturer in China, with 7.1 percent of the market–well behind first place Nokia, which currently has 26.7 percent. But how many people are sporting homemade Nokia superfan t-shirts in that country?

China is a modern day Wild Wild East. It’s a strange world where copyright laws have little bearing and that supports sprawling black and gray markets for electronics.

Much of the technology we use in the West is manufactured in the People’s Republic. And that industrial knowledge base (and spare parts) eventually trickle down through the country’s vast manufacturing sector. You can find knockoff Blackberries that run on Android, mini-iPads months ahead of the rumored official announcement, and of course many examples of completely non-legit branded gadgetry. All for sale in China and other nearby markets. And, so it was really just a matter of time until the beloved cartoon mute, Snoopy became a cell phone.

Poor Snoopy is cut in half so his back side makes up the bulk of the phone. And there is some attention to detail in creating the beagle-phone hybrid–the speaker is molded in the form of a little dog bone with small dog paw prints along the bottom. Snoop even has a 1.3 MP camera built into his little bow tie (though, in my opinion, that camera belongs at the end of his signature black snout).

If you happen to come across a less-than-official dealer in Hong Kong or Shanghai and have $40 burning a hole in your pocket, you can be the toast of the town with your Snoopy phone (if you live in a town where people love Snoopy–I don’t, but you might). So, if you have a hankering for any electronic device sporting your beloved cartoon characters of your youth, take heed, because those Fraggle Rock iPads and Calvin and Hobbes laptops will eventually exist in some shady corner store’s backroom.

via M.I.C.

Is China ready for an Apple invasion? From the looks of the recent arrival of the iPad in that country, the answer seems to be a big ole yes. Cupertino is looking to make an even bigger impact in that country, with the upcoming launch of the iPhone 4 and the opening of two new Apple Retail Stores.

The iPhone 4 is set to hit Apple stores in China this Saturday, September 25th at 8:00 A.M. And again, if the iPad launch is any sign, the event is set to be quite the early morning spectacle–especially if Han Ziwen and his custom Apple shirts [Pictured Above] are anywhere to be seen.

That day will also mark the opening of Apple stores in the country–Bejing’s Apple Store Xidan Joy City and Apple Store Hong Kong Plaza in Shanghai.

The iPhone 4 will be on China Unicom in that country. It will also be available in the wireless carrier’s storefronts.