According to a report from Reuters, authorities in Shanghai, China have broken up a complex iPhone counterfeiting ring that used genuine parts to make and sell very convincing fake versions of Apple’s popular iPhone, arresting five suspects in the process.
The fact that these fake iPhones were made from actual iPhone parts is the most interesting part of this. Presumably, the companies that make components for Apple made additional parts to sell to third parties, who then figured out how to piece the components together into a working device. From the report:
The cost to make one fake iPhone, which used some genuine parts, was around 2,000 yuan ($313). It was sold on unauthorized markets and on the Internet for around 4,000 yuan, only a few hundred yuan cheaper than the real iPhone, the newspaper said. The fake iPhones had the same functions as the genuine ones but had a shorter battery life, it quoted the police as saying.
It’s unclear whether or not the counterfeiters actually managed to run iOS on these devices. It’s possible that the devices simply run a version of Android with an iOS-like skin. As you can see from the below clip uploaded by YouTube user r0unakjain, the counterfeit iPhones look surprisingly authentic, although the software doesn’t look quite right in my opinion.
