Chinese companies have been pumping out iPad clones for longer than Apple has actually been selling the 10 inch tablet. The first models were just Android or Windows 7-powered tablets designed to look like an oversized iPod touch. And when Apple announced that the iPad really would look like an oversized iPad touch, well… not much changed.
But according to some Chinese reports, while demand for these cheap iPad clones was pretty high early in the year, things are cooling off a bit. That’s partly because the costs of producing the knockoffs is rising, driving up prices and reducing profit margins.
Apple has also started selling the real iPad in Hon Kong, although it’s not officially available in mainland China yet. But you can apparently get an Apple iPad in China for about $660 on the gray market. While that’s a lot more money than you’ll pay for most of the knockoffs, the iPad is selling briskly both in Hong Kong and mainland China.
via ReadWriteWeb
Of course demand will be cooling. I think everyone realizes that the original iPad is much better than any cheap clone.
It’s always so gratifying to be implicitly called a “nobody”. Arm-based touchscreen computers running operating systems developed for mobile phones are probably not going to take off. I don’t care what you call it or whose brand you attach to it. It seems as though people prefer netbooks for the void that these devices are intended to fill.