In international news this week, an American blogger living in China discovered what has been revealed to be “fake” Apple Stores.
Although on the surface the shop appeared to be genuine, the blogger revealed a number of inconsistencies between the Chinese store and the American versions. According to the BBC report the quality of the shop itself was not up to standard.
“The stairs appeared to be poorly put together, the walls were not painted properly and, most damning, it had the words “Apple store” written on the shop front. ‘Apple never writes ‘Apple Store’ on its signs – it just puts up the glowing, iconic fruit,’ wrote BirdAbroad.”
BirdAbroad clearly spends a lot of time in Apple shops and knows her apples. Following her blog, which has had over 500,000 hits, the Chinese authorities have investigated a number of suspected “Fake Apple” stores and two have been closed. The store that BirdAbroad visited was not closed as it sold genuine Apples, despite its shoddy paintwork. The shop in question is not listed as an official “Apple” retailer, which apparently raises concerns that the produce has been bought on the “grey market.” We presume this is like the black market, only more faded with the stairs poorly put together.
Our own Grumpy Tech Guy, Mr. B had this to say on the subject of “Fake Apples:”
“I love fake Apples! (If referring to pc’s that run apple OS- my Netbook is the same as a Macbook, runs OS X, but £600 cheaper!) Also, love fake apples. For example: I have a replacement head unit in my car – looks like a high end Vauxhall one. 7″ screen, plays DVD, Bluetooth, iPod, rear view camera sat-nav, etc – a Chinese clone but a 1/3 of the price of the Vauxhall model. China have lost that rep of the ‘70’s of being poor quality. Now it’s feature full and at a great price! Apple are more into world domination these days than Microsoft!” He looked around nervously and added “I’m sure they can track me (allegedly) via my iPhone and iPad!”
Our man on the ground had a slightly different take on the subject, stating:
“I think it’s horrific that people could have been fooled into thinking these were legitimately one of their five a day! I’m not really surprised though, they probably would have been better off copying lychees. I just thank God it wasn’t apricots…”
This is clearly a controversial subject and not a debate that will be settled soon.
You can read the full BBC report here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14273444
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