china’s ipad

Chinese manufacturers are already making rough copies of Apple’s iPad.

The 10-inch entertainment device, on which one can read books, play music and videos and surf the Internet, sold more than 500,000 in its first week alone, and continued strong U.S. demand has led Apple to delay the product’s international launch to the end of April.

Chinese counterfeiters have rushed to fill the iPad gap.

Taobao, China’s largest online marketplace, contains hundreds of listings for the coveted product, many real but some dubiously labeled as “China goods”, with claims to have even better features than the real deal.

While the producers are referred to as counterfeiters and pirates, the iPad, like other copies, are not perfect copies and they are not sold as Apple products. Sure, the technology is copied, and sometimes the logo, but sellers are honest about products being copies rather than the real thing.

Prices for the Chinese iPads are only a small bit cheaper than the real thing. Prices will surely drop when Apple starts selling internationally.