Mobile Counterfeiting, Including another Nokia N95

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery... but when it comes to brand duplication and counterfeiting I think flattery is far from thought.

An interesting article on Spluch shows an array of cloning at its very best including devices from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Vertu and even the Apple iPhone.  The first N95 clone that I came across has nothing on this.  This has gone way beyond just remaking the device.  The counterfeits even include logos, partial and full as seen on the Motorola and the Sony Ericsson.

What's interesting about some of these counterfeits, especially the N95 is that they have touch-screen. 

How do these manufacturers get away with this?  Its obviously blatant, and even though the consumer may be aware of the fact that they are purchasing non-originals what are the companies doing about it?  Can they even do anything about it?

I remember back in my designer clothing phase buying a knock-off Fendi bag.  Yeah I knew it wasn't real, but for some reason I wanted one.  Then I decided that if I couldn't afford the "real thing" it made no sense to have even a fake one in the first place.  That's kind of my same thought when I saw the Vertu/Veptu in this article. 

Consumers pay money for not the brand name alone, but for the reputation behind it, and while the reputation of the original companies are not compromised because of these "wanna-be" devices, its still a bit annoying and confusing to see this happen and people getting away with it.  I guess maybe they consider it as a "cheap" alternative to the real thing.

 

 [via: N95 Blog]

Comments

[MoGangster]

The anycall phones aren't fakes theyre samsung rebranded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anycall

[Darla]

Good point MoGangster, thats sort of why I didn't include the Anycall phones in the images. That to me doesn't seem to be part of this sort of thing (I'll edit the name)... but the others are just wayyyyy too obvious. Lol like Veptu... I can't get over that one.