

IPed Launches For $105 in China, Runs On Android - crocowhile
http://www.techi.com/2010/05/iped-launches-for-105-in-china-runs-on-android/

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adriand
Two great articles on the shanzhai, the rapidly iterating, agile-oriented
manufacturing companies in China that start with knock-offs and work towards
becoming legitimate innovators in the own right:

<http://www.tigoe.net/blog/category/environment/295/>

[http://www.strategy-
business.com/article/09315?gko=0d73e&...](http://www.strategy-
business.com/article/09315?gko=0d73e&tid=27782251&pg=all)

~~~
angusgr
I wonder if the iPed name is part of the _'16-point program'. The manufacturer
must demonstrate 16 differences between his product and the original_

From <http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=139>

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csomar
I remember purchasing a Chinese MP3/MP4 player 4 years ago. It was a hell
cheaper than the ipod. ipod costs $250 and that little "sony" player costs
something around $30.

Troubles began with the charger, which finally went to trash and I have had to
charge the player using the PC USB port. A few days later, half of the memory
was damaged. If I put music (or any other files), I can't read it later on. I
used it around 40 times and played may be 100 hours of music. The battery life
has dramatically dropped from 2 hours to half an hour.

That being said, you pay what you get for. It's not because it was built in
China so it's cheap. My HP computer parts were built in China and Taiwan and
the computer was packaged in Brazil.

I'm waiting to see the HP slate with webOS or a cool/iPad-like Android powered
device.

~~~
acangiano
> It's not because it was built in China so it's cheap.

The problems start when they are _designed_ in China.

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csomar
> The problems start when they are designed in China.

I think the problem is not in "China" but in bad designers.

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angusgr
Apart from the name and the outward apperance, this doesn't look too different
from other cheap Android tablets like the Eken ones ($99-$130US shipped):
<http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39169>
<http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.39448>

I just received a $99 Eken M001 and, essentially, you get what you pay for.
It's fun to tinker with, but it's no iPad.

~~~
crocowhile
How is the screen? Even if it is not an iPad for that price it would make
quite a nice versatile photo frame to keep on my desk: slideshow, streaming
pictures, email and news. Pretty awesome.

~~~
angusgr
Screen's OK, probably as good as any cheap photo frame.

If you want a non-cuddly chumby then it'd probably do the trick with a bit of
work. :).

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blizkreeg
I'm curious. Even being a knock-off, it must be quite some work to get it to
look and feel (if not function) like an iPad, no? It looks identical on the
outside. The home screen, the icons. I'm actually amazed at how they are able
to create apps and devices so strikingly similar, and that too so quickly.

~~~
mechanical_fish
_Design_ is hard. Copying the superficial aspects of other people's designs is
easy. For example, even I know how to get a photorealistic copy of the iPad
home screen: Run the iPad emulator on the Mac, and take a screenshot. Chop it
up with Photoshop if you want the individual icons.

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tamersalama
It's the APad (as per the manual). The iPed is the equivalent of the iPod.

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rs
I think what makes the iPad the iPad is the AppStore enviroment - the software
vendors, the suport, etc.

But take all that away and for $105, this does look like an uber awesome Linux
hacking device! I would really love to get my hands on one. Even better if
they beef it up and get some decent hardware in it.

~~~
crocowhile
Android marketplace is not very different from the apple store. In fact it's
better if you consider that your apps are not going to be removed from one day
to another because the boss decided so.

~~~
s3graham
I strongly suspect this product would not be approved to run Android Market.

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patrickgzill
Question: is it available in the USA?

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rmorrison
I'm very curious what Mr. Jobs thinks about this. Was the likelihood of this
(and the lack of legal recourse) considered before manufacturing iPads in
China? How much does it bother Apple? Are they far enough on their next
products that it's not a big deal?

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swilliams
I bet he's annoyed out of principle that they copied Apple, but I doubt he
considers the "iped", or any China based knockoff a serious threat. At all.

An Android based tablet from a real competitor (like say, HTC, or the
impending WebOS based one from HP) is certainly more in Apple's crosshairs.

~~~
mechanical_fish
Far from a threat. The arrival of clones on the market is expected and is
necessarily a part of the plan -- everyone knows that a successful new product
will be physically cloned overnight, which is why so much energy is expended
on the brand, the associated services, the software, etc.

Meanwhile, this thing is a positive _embarrassment_ for the Android brand. Or
it would be if the word "Android" were ever publicly associated with the
thing. Something tells me that Google's trademark lawyers -- and perhaps even
this knockoff's manufacturers -- will make sure that this fact is not
mentioned out loud except on tech news sites...

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DrSprout
I would say it's a tribute to Android that it has such wide applications. It's
a cheap and mostly functional device. Android devices aren't fashion
statements; they are commodities.

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volomike
When you add everything up, there's no way that Apple can maintain dominance
here. I mean, Google's Android is going to kill Apple's mobile OS. It costs
manufacturers virtually nothing to license and use it on their hardware. And
China is going to keep on shipping the cheaper hardware.

~~~
mechanical_fish
Is Dell "dominant" over Apple, because they sell larger volumes of cheaper
machines?

Consider: There have literally always been cheaper MP3 players than the iPod.
At every single point in the product's history.

~~~
jarek
In terms of amount of customers worldwide they serve compared to the number of
customers Apple serves with their equivalent products? I'd go with yes.

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elblanco
Prediction: a $100-150 drop in the price of an iPad within the next 6 months.

~~~
csomar
Can you tell us how did you make your predictions?

~~~
elblanco
I thought this was a thread about a competitor to the iPad, no?

Does nobody subscribe to capitalist market theory anymore these days? _sigh_

There will soon be many competitors to the iPad. These competitors, unable to
compete solely on features or polish (read: quality), will most likely compete
on price -- i.e. Hyundai vs. Honda. Competition of this nature _can_ drive
down prices on the entire market. It's clear that Apple makes considerable
profit on each iPad (
[https://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/04/how_much_does_it_cos...](https://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/04/how_much_does_it_cost_to_build.html)
) so they have quite a bit of room to maneuver on price in order to put
pressure on the market -- i.e. if they make it harder to compete on price,
then competitors will have to compete on other differentiable areas, like
features or marketing, and very few competitors will be able to do so. A $100
price drop, while eating into profit, is _still_ a profitable price for the
device.

In addition, Apple has shown a willingness in the past to cut prices (
[https://www.macworld.com/article/59838/2007/09/iphonepricecu...](https://www.macworld.com/article/59838/2007/09/iphonepricecut.html)
[http://www.tuaw.com/2009/10/20/macbook-pro-sees-a-price-
drop...](http://www.tuaw.com/2009/10/20/macbook-pro-sees-a-price-drop/) etc.
etc. etc.) either due to market forces or simply because component prices
fell, which was the case with the original iPhone I believe (Samsung dropped
prices significantly on the memory components used in the device).

Finally, prior to launch, Apple indicated that it could be "nimble" about iPad
pricing should if flounder in the market or come under heavy competition (
<http://www.techdigest.tv/2010/02/apple_to_lower.html> ). See the point above
about profitability. The market is extremely open right now and it's Apple's
to own and dominate. 2 Million iPads, while a lot, is only a fraction of the
potential market. Apple needs to absolutely dominate the market now, and make
it that much harder for competitors to move in. They'll either have to iterate
with the next version of the device soon, and include obvious features people
want, like USB, SD Card slots and a Camera. Or they'll have to cut prices.
Considering that the original device _pointedly_ omitted such obvious I/O
capabilities, it appears the philosophy will not be to release a new version
with those minor modifications. So price seems to be the other logical
conclusion.

Common, it's not that hard. Sometimes I swear I feel like I'm speaking moon
language.

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hackermom
The UI looks very crude. Slow, jumpy, graphically unpolished and unappealing,
and gives a very bad feeling about the over-all product, but this should very
well be expected considering how astonishingly short time this knock-off has
been brewing since the recent release of the iPad. Very agile development
indeed.

But the important, related questions are, with this short development time in
mind, what underlying quality in the hardware and software can we expect, and
what backing-up of the product in terms of support etc. can we expect from the
producer?

My experience is that these Chinese knock-offs are _always_ crap akin to just
being "use once" gadgets (have to cost next to nothing to develop and to
manufacture), _always_ short-lived, _always_ made only to follow the current
hottest buzz, just to sell shitloads, and then quickly being discarded as per
the traditional way of Chinese business - once money has changed hands,
everything is just great, couldn't be better, and the deal is flawless, done
and over with.

