It looks like the long arm of the law has finally caught up with China’s counterfeit iPhone outfit, with five suspects being arrested in Shanghai’s finest. The five were accused of being part of a complex iPhone counterfeiting outfit which actually relied on genuine parts in order to construct and sell fake iPhones to the unsuspecting masses (or those who cannot resist a deal that is too good to be true).
Most of the components were brought in from Guangdong, where assembly will take place in Shanghai. The raid saw 200 counterfeit iPhones being confiscated, and with a “manufacturing” cost of around 2,000 yuan ($313) each, surely the profit margin can’t be that high to be so lucrative – considering how several genuine parts were used. I guess prices in the grey markets and online as well as the demand for such units are decent enough for this racket to continue, with it being sold for only “a few hundred yuan cheaper” than the price of an official iPhone.
All I can say is, if you want to save yourself a lot of heartache and headaches, just go for the real deal at the nearest Apple Store. The same applies for any other kinds of hardware, too.