ShanzaiLooks !

Now. The iPhone is one of the coolest gadgets you can get your hand on these days (though I am waiting to get my hands on Docomos t-01a! Much better!). However, only 1 of these is a real iPhone. The other is a "hiPhone" if you will. Or more specifically, a Shenzhai phone. Produced by one of the hundreds of small phone manufacturers that have sprung up in China that make phones.

The market in China went nuts in 2007, when the government decided you did not need a licence to manufacture phones. Not only that, but a chip company in Taiwan produced an open source chip that was cheap enough to allow these guys to simply and easily upload software to the phone to make it work.

This all sounds nice. However, China has a bad reputation when it comes to copyright law. In China, there are car companies producing near carbon copies of a Rolls Royce. You have Pizza Huh, and Starbooks Coffee. Now, these small companies are getting in on the act.

Chinas development is fuelling demand for technology. People want the latest coolest thing. Problem is, the latest coolest thing is the iPhone, and it is way too expensive for the average Chinese.

Up steps the Shenzhai company, who within weeks is churning out very good knock-off copies of the iPhone. Looks the same, pretty much the same functions, but the price is lower by at least 1 zero!

The shenzhai industry has, in the space of a few years, managed to spoof most of the major manufacturers.

There are more examples of this. For example, all the Japanese companies regularly send people over on "Mystery shopper" trips, and they usually find their entire range of phones, on sale, at significantly lower prices.

So far, sounds like a big rip off.

Its not all doom.

These companies can be enormously imaginative with their phones, too.

Yes, some of the phones include impressive speakers, add-on zoom lenses for the cameras, a cellphone watch, assorted cars, and boxes of cigarettes! They also will turn a range of cartoon characters into cellphones! They also include nifty little extras, like UV lights to check for counterfeit money, cigarette lighter, 2 slots for SIM cards allowing 2 numbers at a time, amongst many.

This side does sound good. However, be warned, there is a health risk with these! Usually the radiation is over and above what is considered "safe," and there are risks with the manufacture of the phone itself. Half the reason mobile phones are so expensive is the heavy use of exotic metals such as gold for the transmitter, platinum for its conductivity, and palladium for its ability to connect things on a circuit board, AND for its ability to withstand pretty much all forms of corrosion.

This is where the shanzhai companies fall down. They will use gold. Out of all of these metals, it is the easiest to get. However, signal quality is not so good as platinum is expensive, and hard to get. The most important, is palladium. They dont use palladium. It is more expensive than gold, and much rarer. So, they stick with ordinary steel.

So, if you get youself a shanzhai phone, if you open it up, there is a good chance that it will be quietly rusting away!

This is a problem, as there have been reports of these phones exploding! Including one that exploded in the shirt pocket of its owner whilst he was at work!

Is all this a problem. Yes, and no. I find it deeply annoying, that the Chinese, with all their expertise in making stuff, still want to rip off others that spent decades getting their product just right. These companies have shown they can bring some nifty little products to the market that could easily find a niche, if they did not insist in copying everything out of Japan, Europe, or the US.

If they where to work on their safety record too, I could be tempted! I do like the watch/phone! Very Star Trek!