Computer>> Piracy • China
At first appearance it looks like a sleek Apple store.
Sales assistants in blue T-shirts with the company’s logo chat with customers. Signs advertising iPad 2 hang from the white walls. Outside, the famous logo sits next to the words Apple Store. But it is all fake.
China, known for producing counterfeit gadgets, software and branded clothing, has reached a piracy milestone. An American blogger who lives in Kunming in Yunnan state says she stumbled on three such stores within a week. She took photos and posted them on her blog birdabroad.wordpress.com. Apple’s Beijing office declined to comment but China’s commerce minister promised crackdown. The set-up was so convincing that the workers seemed to believe they worked for Apple. “Apple never writes Apple Store on its signs—it just puts up the glowing, iconic fruit,” her blog reads.
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