Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Instructs Chinese Users on Identification and Use of Genuine Apple Power Adapters

sharkzor said:
WHY not make the original apple chargers cheaper so people won't have to use fake ones?
Click to expand...

No one has to buy a fake one. It's personal choice. If someone wants to risk their property or life to save $10-15 then let's chalk it up to Darwinism. Also there are plenty of less expensive UL, CE, CSA, and ETL certified USB chargers on the market if one doesn't want to spend $20. You can easily get a non-Apple but lab certified USB 5v charger for $10.

It's not Apple or any other company's fault that some of it's customers willingly buy expensive products and then go Mr. Roper when it comes to a $20 replacement accessory.

If anyone is "at fault" here its the Chinese gov't for allowing dangerous substandard products to made and sold.
 
Kissaragi said:
Apple could drop the price to £1 a charger and the knock offs would still be being brought out 50p cheaper.

You cant compete on price with counterfeit products and a lot of people will always go for the cheaper option.
Click to expand...

And those people deserve what their cheapness and stupidity net them.

BTW: To all of the whiners talking about how Apple shouldn't charge $30 for their cable, please at least base your ridiculous incredulity in reality. The Lightning cable costs $19.

When I paid $300 for my phone, plus another $100 for AppleCare+, I really didn't think twice about dropping another $60 on three extra lightning cables, along with the peace of mind of knowing I had a quality product that would actually be backed up by the manufacturer. And I know that as long as my iPhone is under warranty I will be able to take any of those cables into the Apple store and get it replaced on the spot, no questions asked.
 
bushido said:
Dear Cable Manufacturer,

to be a licensed partner please pay the amount of xy to our bank account in Switzerland.

If you do not follow our suggestion we will lock you out (hint: we implemented some sneaky bastard of a chip so either pay or else ...)

Kind regards

Apple
Click to expand...

Yep, I'm sure Tim Cook lays awake at night wondering what he can come up with to screw his customers and extract more money out of them.
 
Plutonius said:
Instructions: Whatever you do, do not use Samsung products :D.
Click to expand...
lol the tv I have from them is nice tho.:cool:

Tankmaze said:
Now I know why apple limits the lighting connector license and scrutinize unofficial cable, so getting electrocuted or exploding battery could be minimize to none.
Click to expand...

Nope. Maybe as a side benefit. The main benefit is to be able to charge as much as they want for their cable. Apple has always been controlling in this way and for this reason. It's essentially their bread and butter.
 
Im sorry but in some countries, consumer goods are _regulated_ by someone (read government) other than the manufacturer of the end device.

If I could go to the hand-mart and buy a car charger that had a high probability of blowing my vehicle up, you better believe that regulators would step in and shut that crap down, and fast.

The moral obligation of _regulation_ is to protect the consumer from unsafe products in the very case where the consumer cannot reliably distinguish the safe device from the unsafe device.

This is a government regulation fail, not a "Apple" problem at all.
 
appleisking said:
I bought a small laptop carrier bag from Apple, costed like 60 bucks. Def, overpriced, yet I still bought it. There's this aura about Apple. Kinda like Armani or Louis Vuitton. The brand power. But I really can't believe you don't think their products are overpriced. Not all but their macs definitely, keyboards, RAM, SSDs, upgrade options, cables, cases, mouse, trackpad, etc. Only the following are priced reasonable: their ipods and the Apple TV, maybe maybe the full-sized iPad.
Click to expand...

That's your problem then. Don't buy stuff from Apple if you think they're overcharging you.
 
bushido said:
no one asked apple to invent a cable that includes its own ram and chip set which theyve only done to make even more money in the first place :p
Click to expand...

I assume that at least some of the complexity is due to the fact that the pins are reversible. That makes it a lot easier to use, and is a significant improvement in my opinion.
 
appleisking said:
it's a cable man. It doesn't need to be good. It just needs to charge. There are many good cables out there that won't kill you yet at a decent price. You can't compare an iphone to a cable in your scenario.
Click to expand...

There are many million people living in China using many million chargers.

If you build a phone charger that has only a one-in-a-million chance of killing a person, then you will have many people dying. If you build a phone charger that has a one-in-a-billion chance of killing a person, then it would be slightly bad luck if a single person dies.

Most people who buy a rubbish cable will get a cable that doesn't kill them, but some will get one that kills them.
 
mumph said:
Er... Apple products come with a charger so if you buy a knockoff one then you get what you deserve.
Click to expand...
you get what you deserve? So you deserve to die or be put in a comma because you bought a knockoff?
 
Elbon said:
Why not use the charger that came with the iPhone?
Click to expand...

Actually, if you buy at a really sleazy store, they might have removed the original charger and replaced it with a cheap one, to sell the original one for a good profit.
 
faked devices

I bought one on Amazon and it had the Apple copyright etc etc on it. But it wasn't an Apple part.

I complained both to Amazon and Apple but received no reply.

Amazon is very poor about policing the store descriptions. Quite a few non-original products have original-product photos and claim to be authentic, but are not. The fact that these have been there for a long time is evident from the feedback comments, some over a year old, complaining about it.
 
appleisking said:
Apple woefully underpays retail (heh won't even go near your factory worker comment) despite their profits. That is not where that extra green is going trust me.
Click to expand...

I think the guys in the store near me are paid quite well, at least compared to everyone else in the same shopping centre.
 
vpndev said:
I bought one on Amazon and it had the Apple copyright etc etc on it. But it wasn't an Apple part.

I complained both to Amazon and Apple but received no reply.

Amazon is very poor about policing the store descriptions. Quite a few non-original products have original-product photos and claim to be authentic, but are not. The fact that these have been there for a long time is evident from the feedback comments, some over a year old, complaining about it.
Click to expand...

yes i saw an iphone 4 there for 250. Naturally, my b.s radar went off so I went and looked at the comments. Sure enough, the actual seller is some warehouse trying to rip u off.
 
hellomoto4 said:
$25 to potentially save my own life. Outrageous expenditure.
Click to expand...

Might be a one in a million chance. Probably less, because we only heard of two cases. If you drive through London, you will see people taking much much bigger chances with their lives and others' lives for much less gain; and the same is probably true anywhere you drive.

I bet if I offered you a genuine charger for free but you have to drive 20 miles in your car to pick it up, or you pick up a cheap charger in the shop next door, you are more likely to die driving to pick up the genuine charger.
 
Excellent move by Apple.
Now all the counterfeit ones will know exactly how to look like genuine.
Who was in charge of this should be terminated.
 
bushido said:
beware of amazon as well, they sell multiple 3rd party adapters under the "original part" name which I am always amazed is even allowed.
Click to expand...

This happens a LOT for high-profile brands (Apple, Nikon, Sony, etc), batteries in particular. After getting burned or confused, I finally decided to cough up the painfully high prices in brand or high-profile (Best Buy) stores just to KNOW I'm getting the right accessory.

I assume Amazon's problem is they're listing so many millions of products there's no viable way to weed out the lying knock-offs. It won't end; all you can do is pay full price from a clearly authorized brand retailer.

----------
ad1815 said:
1: Original Apple accessaries are too expensive.
Click to expand...
Not really.
$20 for a 110v-to-5v power supply which SAFELY fits in a 1" cube is NOT easy to build.
It seems expensive because you can pay 1/10th of that for a 110v-to-5v power supply which UNSAFELY fits in a 1" cube - but you risk paying the difference with your life (hence the discussion).
 
Chupa Chupa said:
No one has to buy a fake one. It's personal choice. If someone wants to risk their property or life to save $10-15 then let's chalk it up to Darwinism. Also there are plenty of less expensive UL, CE, CSA, and ETL certified USB chargers on the market if one doesn't want to spend $20. You can easily get a non-Apple but lab certified USB 5v charger for $10.

It's not Apple or any other company's fault that some of it's customers willingly buy expensive products and then go Mr. Roper when it comes to a $20 replacement accessory.

If anyone is "at fault" here its the Chinese gov't for allowing dangerous substandard products to made and sold.
Click to expand...

Exactly, there's a reason for the certification process and that reason is safety/reliability/quality/etc. Sure the process adds to the cost of the cable, but the quality control will be much better than on non-certified cables like the ones that have shocked people.

I would certainly trust one of these more than the 5 pack of charger+cables I got off ebay for $5.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Watt's the problem?

I guess it comes down to...

The more you can charge, the more you can charge.

(sry - couldn't resist)
 
Rogifan said:
Why do people have to use fake ones? I have a hard time believing someone can afford an iPhone or iPad but can't afford a charger.
Click to expand...

Have you wondered how some people can afford and iphone??? Its a status symbol, and some people that own them would struggle to then have spare cash to fork out for a authentic charger.

Frankly Apple accessories are a ripoff. It was cheaper for me to get a used nano off ebay with a charging cable then buy the replacement cable. For a nano that cost me 40 pounds, the replacement cable was 15 pounds. Off ebay I got a nano and cable for the same price I would need to pay for the cable.
 
TsunamiTheClown said:
Im sorry but in some countries, consumer goods are _regulated_ by someone (read government) other than the manufacturer of the end device.
Click to expand...

The problem you avoid addressing is: an awful lot of people will still demand the unregulated products because they're so cheap, so many people that a way to serve that demand WILL be found.

Consider "hard drugs": regulated to the point of total prohibition as a matter of public safety, yet anyone can get whatever they want with a wad of cash and a short trip to the seedy side of town.

There comes a point where you stop trying to protect people from themselves because they will go to extreme lengths to be very stupid. Yes, there will be collateral damage & casualties; that stopping point is where the consequences of regulation become worse to society than what you're trying to protect willful morons from. There is no harm-free solution.
 
GoCubsGo said:
I believe with the iPhone 5, you already do.

Image
Click to expand...

This only verifies the authenticity of the lighting cable - if a knock off cable were used with a genuine (or decent) usb AC adaptor the worst that would happen is a low power 5v discharge.

The other way round - knock off AC adaptor with genuine lightning cable - you'd never see a warning because the chip in the lighting cable would correctly identify itself. But the worst fault condition in the adaptor would send full mains voltage (230 v in the UK) down the cable to the phone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back