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.
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