Chinese Counterfeit Lightning Cables Confiscated in Alaska

[thehustleman]

Originally Posted by RolyPolyBird

I have very little sympathy for corporate america, and especially their exploitative activities in the developing world, but if you buy this crap then you are just supporting the race to the bottom. You also have no idea what labour conditions the black market are using.

I just can't see why Apple consumers would cheap out, sure the cables are overpriced, but if you are looking for the cheapest PC components then why not get some generic wintel box to begin with?

Because the most expensive cables with a Windows box still sucks.

Can't help the fact that Apple over charges for their products, but if that's what you want that's what you have to pay.


Apple is smart like that though, they take about 400 bucks worth of parts, throw a 30 dollar os (the best os btw), and sell it for a couple thousand bucks

[PracticalMac]

Apple killed an auction for a LEGIT cable.

The above was obvious, but a singular item on eBay? WTF?

[tninety]

Originally Posted by bma

So you could develop a omnidirectional, waterproof, usb 2/3 (future) compatible connector with the same connection quality, cable build quality for less than Apple?

Go for it. I hear the MicroUSB 3 guys could do with some help in that department looking at this monstrosity:

Let's see Lightning reach 5 Gbps NOW, then.

Apple might have been able to reduce the cost of its Lightning cable if they hadn't poured so much R&D into making sure nobody else can manufacture them.

[tbrinkma]

Originally Posted by tninety

Let's see Lightning reach 5 Gbps NOW, then.

Apple might have been able to reduce the cost of its Lightning cable if they hadn't poured so much R&D into making sure nobody else can manufacture them.

There's an available pin-out for Lightning which would support USB 3.0. The device at the end of the cable, however, doesn't have fast-enough storage to take advantage of it, so there's very little point. (Currently, *no* cell phone or tablet has fast enough internal storage to take advantage of USB 3.0 speeds.)

Sorry to spoil your mindless rant.

Oh, and let's see USB 3.0 *actually* reach 5Gbps NOW, as well.

[Asia8]

Originally Posted by rdlink

Sorry, I've been burned before buying aftermarket cables. Bought some $2.00 30-pins about a year and a half ago. Bought 10 of them, since they were so cheap, figuring I would have one within arm's reach wherever I was. Only to find out when they arrived that they wouldn't work with anything other than my 4S. Not my iPad. Not my GF's 4. Nothing.

Yes, as I said 4/10 - IIRC- of those tested cables wouldn't even charge power. The point I'm making is about manufacturing costs, nothing to do with quality or functionality.

I wouldn't buy these particular cables either.

Though here there are different grades of cables and chargers. When shopping they will often inform me that one charger is of very low quality and might damage my device if it's an expensive device. ($3 MP3 players are ok)

If using something complex and expensive they will usually recommend something of higher quality, from personal experience, I've learnt to trust those recommendations, just not necessarily the prices.

As for fake cables being exported, it's harder to walk back into a store and refund/exchange it, so they're often very low quality versions to make greater profits.

Also first world customers have sort of brought this on themselves, they will most usually either choose the expensive cable or the cheapest cable, because somehow they think paying very little they can still expect the same quality.

As a result, cheaper high quality copy products don't get sold overseas quite as much as they just don't sell enough due to not being able to compete with the rubbish quality copy products.

The trick is to know that you don't have to pay the OEM (Branded) prices, but also shouldn't expect to buy the cheapest product, there usually is a middle area with both quality and better pricing without the branded premium pricing. But it's hard to know over the internet the quality and whether you can trust the person, especially from outside China/HK.