What a wonderful example of why we do not need intellectual property rights, trademark laws, or the such. It seems there are at least 3 complete Apple Stores in one town in China, selling real Apple products, by workers believing they are Apple employees, but the stores are fake.
Important quotes from the article, making my point:
The manager of an authorized reseller in Kunming, who gave only his surname, Zhang, said most customers have no idea the stores are fake.
Some of the staff in the stores "can't even operate computers properly or tell you all the functions of the mobile phone," he said.
Of course, and how long before customers figure out the stores are fake, and then avoid the stores? Not long...
Revenue was up more than six times from a year earlier to $3.8 billion in the area comprising China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, said Apple's Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook, according to a conference call on Tuesday.
"I firmly believe that we're just scratching the surface right now. I think there is an incredible opportunity for Apple there," Cook said.
At no cost whatsoever to Apple, people are selling Apple products they bought from Apple, investing large sums in Apple-like stores, ultimately to show Apple where more Apple customers are. In time, Apple will come and get it. At that time, the pirates lose their investment.
And slowly but surely, the Chinese consumer, grows in perspicacity, outperforming his USA counterpart.
1 comments:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fake-government-busted-in-china-162053007.html
They knock-off everything in China, including government.
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