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Here come the Chinese Watch clones
- Thread starter Rogifan
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Looks like this clone ripped off some of the software too.
http://mashable.com/2015/01/08/fake-apple-watch-ces/
http://mashable.com/2015/01/08/fake-apple-watch-ces/
Like it or not, I'm pretty stunned they can make this, and is does what it does for only $30
If people can make working smart watches for let's say $99 then the market will fly and go crazy.
Far more people will go and get a smart watch than if they were $350, $500, $1000 type prices.
Like it or not, this is a great price benchmark to show what can be made for something at a silly price.
Here's hoping we shall see, in time sub $100 smart watches of varying ability so everyone can go get one if they want.
If people can make working smart watches for let's say $99 then the market will fly and go crazy.
Far more people will go and get a smart watch than if they were $350, $500, $1000 type prices.
Like it or not, this is a great price benchmark to show what can be made for something at a silly price.
Here's hoping we shall see, in time sub $100 smart watches of varying ability so everyone can go get one if they want.
These things are garbage. There's no way they're making an Apple (or Android Wear) quality device for $30. At the same time it's easy to be cheap when you don't have to invest in any R&D. These garbage knockoffs are in no way an indication that you're being overcharged if you spend more than $99 on a smart watch. That's just ridiculous.
OT: here's a post from someone who recently saw an Watch in person:
http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/08/the-big-picture-this-is-not-the-apple-watch/#comments
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The company making this clone is Shenzhen Hyperdon Technology, which is in the same city as Foxconn.
Hyperdon has been making smartwatches for a while now. They have about a dozen versions. For example, this model, which includes a dialer, music control, remote navigation voice, altimeter:
Basically just a fancy Bluetooth remote. No third party apps. I think it sells for about $39 on eBay.
Hyperdon has been making smartwatches for a while now. They have about a dozen versions. For example, this model, which includes a dialer, music control, remote navigation voice, altimeter:
Basically just a fancy Bluetooth remote. No third party apps. I think it sells for about $39 on eBay.
I think you don't understand, sorry.
People of course are tempted to buy cheap stuff and they at least once in their life get fooled by the attractive price. But sooner they discover that what they have bought is not worth a penny more (maybe much less) then what they have paid for because it will either stop working, or it will be a nightmare to use it and a lightyear away from the quality of the real thing. So eventually they will stop using it, threw it in some corner and go on the market for something else. A friend of mine wanted a tablet but she didn't want to pay for expensive iPads or Galaxy tablets so she went for some Chinese tablet on eBay, that costed only £80, and would do "anything", including making phone calls (dual sim card slots) etc etc. Boy, was she up for a shock of her life! Not that the touch screen was no were as responsive as on the high end tablets, but it was freezing, extremely sluggish and nightmare to use it. Luckily there was a return policy so she send it back, but still had to pay for delivery.
My point is, people do find it on a hard way that most times you get what you pay for, and if you go for cheap stuff, on the long run you are going to end up spending much more.
Things come down in price and don't have to be junk.
You could buy a perfectly good Video Tape Recorder for £100
You can buy an excellent CD player for £100
You can buy a very nice DVD Player for £100
You can buy a pretty nice 8" Android tablet for just a shade over £100
You can buy a nice 32" Flat screen Big Brand Name TV for under £300
You can buy a perfectly good Windows 8.1 laptop for under £300
You can buy a perfectly acceptable big name SmartPhone for £100
Why can't a Smart Watch be £100 ?
What does the lowest spec watch from Apple have to cost more than any of the devices above?
None of the devices and prices I have suggested above would be "Cheap Junk" these days for such items.
For the prices I have illustrated, you could get perfectly good items that performed perfectly well for the typical consumer.
Trust me, the days of being able to charge £600, £800, £1000 for things like Phones and Tablets are coming to an end pretty quickly.
As Steve Jobs himself said, and I quote:
"Picasso had a saying. He said 'Good artists copy, great artists steal.' And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."
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No it does not. We all know when companies say this it's stupid.
Like The Video and Music industry talk the same junk.
They think every copy of an original bought is one lost sale for them.
I've never bought one, but if I could get a really nice looking fake watch that suited me, worked fine and cost $50 I could get it, but I'd never in my entire life pay perhaps $10,000 for the real thing.
Says he, who has very likely never created an original product, idea or innovation in his life.
Way to go.
Nothing to add, nothing intelligent to say, no own opinions or views to add to the topic.
So drop to the lowest form and throw a personal insult.
Nice one
Oh, I always feel so like I'm living in syrup due to the speed people do things.
I wanted something beyond todays iPhone at least 5 if not 10 years before it was ever made.
Hand on my heart, I always wanted or imagined a phone, that was a thin slab, pretty much no bezels (and dam we STILL are not there yet) that was simply all screen.
Sure, I had no idea how to make it, but coming from things like Star Trek that was the device I wanted and saw in my mind, and it took YEARS for someone to even come close to making it.
We still have not got rid of the dam bezels.. one day.
iPad should of had best spec camera and flash from day one. Again it's taking years and years to get there.
I'm sure there are many patents out there where no one knows they exist unless you thought you had come up with the idea.
Thinking up something and making it, are of course totally different things, and I ADORE that people try things and push boundaries.
My main irritation now if that this is stifled a lot these days by big business and everyone watching someone else.
Where are all the dam 12" tablets?
Hell I want a 17" one.
I wish everyone would stop copying Apple. I want them to make great things Apple won't make.
I know as soon as Apple come out with a 12" tablet, we will see a load more. Hell people, make them now, don't wait for Apple.
Apple is a curse in many ways.
They make a very limited range of devices. and they do well.
That's great, and well done them.
I don't care.
What I do care about is other companies see this profit and think we will make something very similar to make money also.
I don't blame them, but as you can see, Apple's success is, to some extent killing perhaps other ideas from other companies becoming what they could do.
On the watch front, it's hard. If It was stand alone it would be far better.
I do see a market, but I kinda think it's doing to have to be a LOT cheaper for mass market like phones are.
I'd not like to say if this is going to be another Apple TV at the moment,
Does anyone REALLY want one after the novelty has worn off if the question.
But what can this cheap smart watch actually do? A good quality steel bracelet costs money. Sure you can buy a cheap on one on eBay for under 10 bucks. But the quality is really bad (personal experience). Apple uses high quality materials in the apple watch on most models. You can buy the original pebble for 99 dollars I think. But that's plastic all the way with a e paper display.
Apple has probably prototyped many different models and done lots of testing. This also costs money. Making a copy from someone else costs you nothing. As with all Apple products they add a couple hundred of dollars on the price as well but that's because they can. I think Apple would loose money on a 100 dollar price tag on the unreleased Apple watch. We will get a better idea of material cost once it gets released.
Oh I agree. I'm not at all saying this $35 watch does much.
To be honest, it does a lot more than even I thought it would.
To make that, and is actually do anything for $35 is amazing.
I just think, medium to long term prices are going to tumble.
To get total mas market you normally need to hit the $99 or £99 mark.
Given what you CAN buy now, today for that price. Some amazing tech. I don't see any reason why Smart Watches can't get to this level quite quick. After all the material costs, once in full production are going to be minimal and it's just a tiny screen which will be cheap and the chip and sensors.
Naturally there will be a fashion brand price issue, but as with all things, these will get cheap, and think this could happen quite quick once they mature. Think they will get cheap quicker than phones got cheap as the tech is already established, it's really just the chip.
Watch body and strap = done a million time over
Screens = already done for phones and this is way smaller and cheaper.
Battery tech = already done, but of course can be better.
Chip = always making new chips
Body sensors are the only really new addition and they won't take long to price crash.
Other than that, it's just the software to tie it together.
there is nothing inherently must be expensive around these things when you think about it and what we already have in other form factors
I agree with you that smart watches will get cheaper. Just look at pebble. I have the plastic one and owned the steel. Great device and not that expensive. I just think that while there will be lots and lots of well priced Google wear watches. Apple probably won't follow that route. They are trying to reach the expensive high fashion watch market. If they succeed and sell then they've opened up a new market of high prized smart watches. If they don't. They might stop making the gold model after the first or second Apple watch. We might end up with a single aluminum product in gold, silver and space grey with different bands. You never know.
I don't think they will succeed in the high end, UNLESS they do one of two things.
1: Many more models, physically very different. (there is zero exclusivity right now other than what metal is the case)
2: Put features into the very high models that the cheaper models lack.
The whole point of why people buy expensive things is to feel different/special etc.
If the kids at school and the bus driver have them also, that's not going to work for the high end market status symbols
I think the image of round icons is just a meaningless placeholder screen.
The crown doesn't even rotate. It's just a Home button, which takes you back to the digital clock face.
Yeah looks like that might be the case.
O/T: the Verge and Ars Technica published stories on former Google employees who created an Android powered tablet that looks exactly like Microsoft Surface. Apparently they plan on selling it in the U.S. I'm not sure how they could do that without Microsoft suing them for IP/trade dress infringement.
The problem is when they start appearing on auction websites, described as apple watches and the less enlightened buy, these as presents thinking they are the genuine article, but not being sold for $35 but say $300 has been with iPhones, and people have ended up with iPhone look alikes running android.
What do you think when official iWatches go on sale?
And I don't mean Apple Watches.
I mean iWatch's by the company that owns the iWatch name as they are going to be having smartwatches made I understand under the iWatch Brand.
When the official iWatch goes on sale (and if it ever does), nothing is going to change. And I think hardly anyone will even notice it. Some people seem to think that the reason Apple products are so popular are because they start with an i and some companies think that having an i starting on their product name is going to give them instant success. Hilarious, don't you think?
It's no different than someone buying Lous Vuitton handbags or a Breitling. They need to use common sense. If something seems like too good a deal, it probably is.
At least the Hyperdon watch doesn't claim to be an Apple Watch. I've seen plenty of people fooled by the fake Note 3 phones out there, though... because they actually have fake Samsung labels on the phone and box!
In any case, you know you've made it when knock-offs start appearing. Check out these Gear and Pebble clones:
Interestingly, an EU funded study recently decided that law enforcement should not waste a lot of time on cloned items, since the people who buy them would almost certainly never buy the real thing... and the clones simply act as more advertising.