Cheap Chinese Apple Watch copycat appears at CES, less than 4 months after Apple unveiling
Before the Apple Watch hits the market early this year, a Chinese company was at this week's CES selling a knock-off version of the highly anticipated wearable for less than one-tenth of the price.
Thrown together and manufactured in time for CES at a rather remarkable pace, the fake Apple Watch being peddled by China's Hyperdon was sold under the name "Smart Watch." Less than four months after the Apple Watch was unveiled -- and before anyone in the public can get their hands on one --?the wrist-worn device copies the general look of Apple's upcoming accessory.
When worn on the left wrist, Hyperdon's mimicry of Apple's "Digital Crown" is located in the same spot, on the upper right side of the device. Located below it is the multi-purpose action button, just like on the Apple Watch.
The as shown by German site Bild, the Chinese "Smart Watch" device also sports a color display, vibration, and an internal speaker. It even includes a pedometer for step tracking, and has an "Anti Lost" mode that will let the user know when their iPhone is out of range.
Unsurprisingly, their tests found the cheap counterfeit device's feature set "seemed incomplete and sometimes even useless," according to a machine translation.
Even the asking price for the accessory seems to have been cobbled together: While Bild said they paid $40 at CES, Mashable bought the "Smart Watch" for $27. A representative for Hyperdon --?a woman who was wearing sunglasses indoors -- reportedly attempted to raise the price to $30 before agreeing to the originally promised price.
The Apple Watch, in contrast, will have a starting price of $350.
Hyperdon claims that its device overs over 180 hours of uptime on a single charge, though neither site put those tests to the claim. Notifications were made possible through some third-party apps like WeChat, but doing so required a "sketchy-looking APK" to be installed on a jailbroken handset, according to Mashable.
Hyperdon claims that its device is available in some retail stores around the world, though it had not been widely seen prior to this week's CES. Of course, the legality of selling such a blatant copyright infringing device would be in question, at the very least.
The actual Apple Watch has a self-imposed "early 2015" launch window. One report this week suggested that Apple might be eyeing a March release for the anticipated accessory.
Thrown together and manufactured in time for CES at a rather remarkable pace, the fake Apple Watch being peddled by China's Hyperdon was sold under the name "Smart Watch." Less than four months after the Apple Watch was unveiled -- and before anyone in the public can get their hands on one --?the wrist-worn device copies the general look of Apple's upcoming accessory.
When worn on the left wrist, Hyperdon's mimicry of Apple's "Digital Crown" is located in the same spot, on the upper right side of the device. Located below it is the multi-purpose action button, just like on the Apple Watch.
The as shown by German site Bild, the Chinese "Smart Watch" device also sports a color display, vibration, and an internal speaker. It even includes a pedometer for step tracking, and has an "Anti Lost" mode that will let the user know when their iPhone is out of range.
Unsurprisingly, their tests found the cheap counterfeit device's feature set "seemed incomplete and sometimes even useless," according to a machine translation.
Even the asking price for the accessory seems to have been cobbled together: While Bild said they paid $40 at CES, Mashable bought the "Smart Watch" for $27. A representative for Hyperdon --?a woman who was wearing sunglasses indoors -- reportedly attempted to raise the price to $30 before agreeing to the originally promised price.
The Apple Watch, in contrast, will have a starting price of $350.
Hyperdon claims that its device overs over 180 hours of uptime on a single charge, though neither site put those tests to the claim. Notifications were made possible through some third-party apps like WeChat, but doing so required a "sketchy-looking APK" to be installed on a jailbroken handset, according to Mashable.
Hyperdon claims that its device is available in some retail stores around the world, though it had not been widely seen prior to this week's CES. Of course, the legality of selling such a blatant copyright infringing device would be in question, at the very least.
The actual Apple Watch has a self-imposed "early 2015" launch window. One report this week suggested that Apple might be eyeing a March release for the anticipated accessory.
Comments
Sue them into prison.
~~kinda of what I felt about the Apple watch myself, kinda useless...
(reasons why, still have to carry my iPhone 6+ with me to use it's 'features'. I don't work out like a gym fiend, already have a 40.00 watch to tell time. I'm not going to be able to afford an insurance policy for smashing a 400.00 plus watch in between a U-boat and a concrete wall at work...)
It's about ..Time
Bad da dump dump!
Ahhh you see what I did there? Even the drum roll was a pun.
This is just ridiculous. I wish our government would have the balls to go after China for things like this. It's just sickening the amount of copying the Chinese do. From electronics to even the Ford F-150, the Chinese just have no shame.
I don't speek German, but I'm fairly sure he repeatedly describes the display as monochrome. Also it sure doesn't look like a color display.
In any case, both the hardware and software look absolutely terrible.
What stood out to me is that it's not AMOLED so the blacks are extremely poor so that the border and display are easily discerned. My guess is ?Watch will have to use OLED to get that effect, as well as reduce power usage by making the screens use a lot of black (or rather, not activate most of the pixels).
This is just ridiculous. I wish our government would have the balls to go after China for things like this. It's just sickening the amount of copying the Chinese do. From electronics to even the Ford F-150, the Chinese just have no shame.
What exactly would you have the US Gov't do....? If China doesn't want to be a responsible protector of of copyright and trade dress, the non-drastic options seem limited. Because of said lack of shame and ability to absorb a lot of jaw-boning without ever taking real action.
We've gotten to a point where China has real leverage against the US on multiple fronts - economic, debt holding, military and diplomatic.
Sue them into prison.
Think this can be pretty much kept out of the US and other developed countries (tho' it might show up in some flea and other grey/dark grey market places), but if China' s not inclined to snuff it out, doubt the Chinese courts are much of a resource.
If Apple, on the other hand, could find some competitive non-Chinese suppliers to lessen their business in China and make it clear they plan to move that way, that, I believe would get some attention in Beijing.
But even there, Apple's hungry to be in the Chinese market and China's shown they can make that difficult as well, so not expecting a "fair" trade law enforcement regime anytime soon.
Welcome to the world of fashion Apple ... seriously.
This is a big nothing. People will buy these as a joke, not to pretend they have an aWatch. It reminds me of the Rolexes of yesteryear. I had one of those and it lasted a couple of months. The difference is that a fake Rolex shares with the original the sole useful function of telling the time. A cheap aWatch copy can't match such functional parity so to own one is just silly. From a jewelry perspective neither a Rolex nor aWatch counterfeit will cut the mustard in the kind of circles where it matters what you wear on your wrist.
What exactly would you have the US Gov't do....? If China doesn't want to be a responsible protector of of copyright and trade dress, the non-drastic options seem limited. Because of said lack of shame and ability to absorb a lot of jaw-boning without ever taking real action.
We've gotten to a point where China has real leverage against the US on multiple fronts - economic, debt holding, military and diplomatic.
Think this can be pretty much kept out of the US and other developed countries (tho' it might show up in some flea and other grey/dark grey market places), but if China' s not inclined to snuff it out, doubt the Chinese courts are much of a resource.
If Apple, on the other hand, could find some competitive non-Chinese suppliers to lessen their business in China and make it clear they plan to move that way, that, I believe would get some attention in Beijing.
But even there, Apple's hungry to be in the Chinese market and China's shown they can make that difficult as well, so not expecting a "fair" trade law enforcement regime anytime soon.
That is the problem. There is nothing we can do that isn't drastic. Obviously a trade embargo would really hurt China, but at the same time, it would hurt us too. I don't think China has a military advantage over the U.S. by any means. Debt holding isn't an advantage for China either. If we defaulted on our debt to China, that would wreck havoc on China since a huge part of their wealth depends on the U.S. to pay down on its loans. Unfortunately at the end of the day, China needs us just as much as we need them. Personally, I think the U.S. Government can threaten China for their lack of protecting copyright and trade dress.
The as shown by German site Bild, the Chinese "Smart Watch" device also sports a color display...
I don't speek German, but I'm fairly sure he repeatedly describes the display as monochrome. Also it sure doesn't look like a color display.
In any case, both the hardware and software look absolutely terrible.
I have seen pictures of this watch with the icons on the face in color like this one. Although after further inspection, it looks like it may be a printed screen protector overlay like Apple has done in the past. So it may well not be color. I thought it was because of this image until I looked closer.
You'd better watch out for women wearing sunglasses indoors! They can be real shady.
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I’d say this is over the line, but at least you could confidently repay them the cost of it, given that it would be an order of magnitude lower than that of a real product.
over 180 hours of uptime on a single charge, though neither site put those tests to the claim.
What?
This isn't even an amusing Yoda-ism. It's just an example of what happens when canned phrases are used to cobble together an article without actually understanding the expression.