Another disgraceful PRC copy

[singveld]

The story is not Apple per se. It's about PRC, the local laws and their audacity. They even copied the steel rails for the staircase.

Can you imagine the impact on ethnic Chinese. i am sure nobody is going to pass comments to our faces but behind our backs is a whole different story.

Chinese are well regarded for tenacity, business acumen but are also not well regarded for ethics and FairPlay. Look at Wendy Deng who is flavour of the month. Smart but took advantage of everyone that she met. Imagine sleeping in the same room with her 5 yr old sponsor's daughter, screwing the dad and wrecking the marriage. After green card gone.

No, the editor of that paper hate PRC, so they hammer them on front page whenever they have the chance. Basically, the business men in PRC will do anything to make a buck. The gov in PRC will do anything to stay in power, this include letting their people do anything as long as they pledge alliance to them.

 

[singveld]

FINI - fake apple store

25 July 2011 Last updated at 03:59 ET

China officials close fake Apple stores in Kunming city
An official investigation has uncovered five fake Apple stores in Kunming

China has moved to shut down several fake Apple stores found in Kunming city.

Three of the elaborate fake stores, which mimicked the look of the real thing, came to the world's attention after being exposed on a blog.

Following the publicity, trade officials investigated and found five stores in Kunming posing as official Apple retail outlets.

Two of the five have now been closed as their owners lacked a business licence.

The BirdAbroad blog, written by an American woman living in Kunming, wrote about a visit to one fake Apple store which superficially resembled the official outlets.

In the article, the blogger wrote about conversations with staff, many of whom were convinced they worked for the US electronics firm.

Chinese officials investigated the shop visited by BirdAbroad but it was not one of those closed down. It has a licence to trade and is selling genuine Apple products.

Apple has said it has no comment to make on the discovery of the counterfeit shops.

On her blog, BirdAbroad described the store as a "beautiful ripoff - a brilliant one - the best ripoff store we had ever seen".

She describes how convincing the shop was at first glance because so much trouble had been taken to copy key elements of a real Apple store.

For instance, it has a winding staircase, upstairs seating area and employees wearing blue T-shirts and chunky ID lanyards.

Shoddy construction

On closer inspection, wrote BirdAbroad, the store did not seem to be constructed to a particularly high standard.

The stairs appeared to be poorly put together, the walls were not painted properly and, most damning, it had the words "Apple store" written on the shop front.

"Apple never writes 'Apple Store' on its signs - it just puts up the glowing, iconic fruit," wrote BirdAbroad.

Research by the blogger revealed that the only official Apple stores in China are in Beijing and Shanghai.

Staff believe they are working in a real Apple store
A further check revealed that none of the three stores she found are mentioned on Apple's list of official resellers known to be trading in Kunming.

What was also unclear was where the fake store had got the Apple products on sale - whether they had come from an Apple distributor or a grey market source.

The blog entry mentioning the visit to the fake store has proved hugely popular and has gathered more than 500,000 visits in less than 48 hours.

 

[singveld]

One blog and out of job

Sorry You just LOSE your dream job with Steve Jobs.

 

[singveld]

No victory for you, YOU ARE FIRED.

 

[singveld]

YOU WILL NEVER SEE THIS AGAIN IN KUNMING.
There isn't even an apple store in singapore.

Kunming your dream is short lived, next time, when an real apple store open, you will see many people line up in the morning, and there is an countdown, the apple employee will cheer everyone entering, like those people just won the lottery, it is very strange for non apple fan boy, it is just a computer shop for christ sake.

 

[singveld]

Chinese Officials Close Two Fake Apple Stores
Chinese officials have ordered the closure of two fake Apple stores in Kunming because they lack the necessary business licenses.(aka someone forgot to bribe the communist officals)

Last week, no less than five fake Apple Stores were uncovered in the Chinese city of Kunming, and now Chinese officials have ordered the closure of two of them, Reuters reports.

The fake stores were first identified by an American blogger living in Kunming who posted photos of a store that looked just like the real deal, down to the long wooden display tables and acrylic product information panels. Even the employees seemed to believe they actually worked for Apple.

Hoards of media attention that followed caused Chinese industrial and commercial authorities to inspect 300 electronics retailers in the city, but only two of the five counterfeit shops have been shuttered.

But they weren’t closed because they were trying to mimic Apple Stores, rather because they lacked official business permits, Reuters says. Spokesman for the Kunming government’s business bureau clarified that the stores were selling genuine Apple products, although he did not discuss where they came from.

“Media should not misunderstand the situation and jump to conclusions,” Chang told Reuters. “Some overseas media has made it appear the stores sold fake Apple products. China has taken great steps to enforce intellectual property rights, and the stores weren’t selling fake products.”

The original store revealed by the Kunming blogger is not one of the stores being shuttered. In fact, according to Reuters, the faux store is in the process of applying to become an authorized Apple reseller. There are four official Apple Stores in China: two in Beijing and two in Shanghai, with a rumored 20 more planned for 2011. There are even more authorized resellers, 13 of which are located in Kunming. But it’s unclear how Apple will handle the fake store’s application in light of its blatant hoax.

Apple hasn’t commented on the fiasco, and it’s unclear if it plans to crack down on phony stores, or if it even can. As Reuters notes, China’s intellectual property laws are much weaker than IP laws in the West. This spring, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office ranked China as having one of the worst records for preventing copyright theft for the seventh consecutive year.

 

[johnny333]

Apple will be setting up their own Apple stores shops HK & China.

This will kill the Apple Authorised Resellers & bogus Apple stores.

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

WOW front page news on straits times.

i do not understand why this news have to be on front pages. There are so much death and hunger in the world. really have to put such news on front page of national paper ?

Also the joke on singapore, despite finding iphone and ipad everywhere in singapore, tom dick and harry, FT and FW and visiting whores all have iphone. There is not a single apple store in singapore. Steve jobs think singapore is too small for apple.

is this true?

What are the store in wheelock and 315 for eg?

 

[johnny333]

is this true?

What are the store in wheelock and 315 for eg?

They are Apple Authorised dealers & not stores operated by Apple.

 

[cheowyonglee]

WOW front page news on straits times.

i do not understand why this news have to be on front pages. There are so much death and hunger in the world. really have to put such news on front page of national paper ?

Also the joke on singapore, despite finding iphone and ipad everywhere in singapore, tom dick and harry, FT and FW and visiting whores all have iphone. There is not a single apple store in singapore. Steve jobs think singapore is too small for apple.

hi stupid singveld the communist ball sucker!so much death and hunger in the world, since you so holy maybe you can fly to africa and donate some of your money to them or help them!!! knn :oIo: :oIo: :oIo:

you are from communist china acting like singaporean.fXXX you you know that!!! you want to act big fXXX here?:oIo: :oIo: :oIo:

 

[singveld]

is this true?
What are the store in wheelock and 315 for eg?

johnny is right, real apple store, own by apple computer, the employee boss is steve jobs

apple store is more like a temple than computer store, more like art gallery than computer store, more like fashion house than computer store.

They are beautifully made shop , craft and decorate by the best in the business.
They are very beautiful, the one in big city are even more amazing.

all apple parts are ready available.

Like apple parts i need, i go into apple store, i say i need this spare battery very old powerbook, they will point to the shelf with the battery, just like this, if i go to singapore authorised dealer, they say have to order take weeks, BOO....

i like apple store very much, like to go in and look around, they do not even have a cash counter. you perform transaction with the blue t shirt person holding a pda type thing that read credit card.

they have a technical boot, where the MAC NOOBS go to ask apple technical question,

 

[singveld]

oh i forgot to mention, since the apple shop have no cash counter, every employee can sell you stuff, so there is no queue to pay, only queue to get their attention, once you paid with your credit card, they can email you to receipt to your email account.

APPLE STORE is great, there is no apple store in Singapore, poor singaporean, steve jobs do not think you are worth their attention. So sad.

 

[drifter]

Did they have the glass staircases as well? Would be amazing if they manage to copy that.

since its a copy apple store ...the stairs is not made of glass ...might be acrylic

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

oh i forgot to mention, since the apple shop have no cash counter, every employee can sell you stuff, so there is no queue to pay, only queue to get their attention, once you paid with your credit card, they can email you to receipt to your email account.

APPLE STORE is great, there is no apple store in Singapore, poor singaporean, steve jobs do not think you are worth their attention. So sad.

Ic there's one pretty nice looking apple store in cineleisure though.

 

[singveld]

Ic there's one pretty nice looking apple store in cineleisure though.

correction, apple authorised dealer in cineleisure.

 

[Conqueror]

Part Of A Transition

I think this is a part of a transition for a developing country. One has to admit that not everyone is rich. The original stuff cost lots of money and the demand for all these quality goods is often unlimited. With China joining the bandwagon to embrace consumerism we are seeing a 'disgusting' behavior of people copying or imitating well-known products.

I have seen a "CASIQ" watch. You will be surprise that this CASIQ watch is far more stable and accurate than a Swatch. Take that ! Imitation may not necessarily be lousy or of lower quality.

 

[tonychat]

oh i forgot to mention, since the apple shop have no cash counter, every employee can sell you stuff, so there is no queue to pay, only queue to get their attention, once you paid with your credit card, they can email you to receipt to your email account.

APPLE STORE is great, there is no apple store in Singapore, poor singaporean, steve jobs do not think you are worth their attention. So sad.

Well, nobody gives a shit about sinkies, especially from those important and successful ones.

 

[talkincock]

Now that everyone knows that I am a fake Thai wannabe residing in sinkieland, let's examine if my life have changed for the better. When i wake up tomorrow morning, i will still have the following traits:

Sinkie mentality
Can't spell correctly
Ball-less in real life
Speaks disgusting Singlish
Those who are on my side will be knighted in cyberspace which is a joke
Begs for points but ended up being exposed which is truly pathetic
Thai OKT who pimps my ladyboy wife in sammyboy sex forum
Expect others to make sacrifices while waiting to reap benefits at their expenses.
Internet is my boasting space

In short, my life's still FUCKED UP AS HELL :(:(:(

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[Ash007]

I think all stores in Singapore selling apple products are authorised dealer. Apple never have an official store they own and operate in Singapore.

correction, apple authorised dealer in cineleisure.

 

[中国Power]

since people like it cheap, we give them cheap.