It seems China is getting faster and better with perfecting their knock-offs. Remember that Range Rover Evoque story a few months ago? Yes, that one where they do near-perfect imitations of the original and then sell it for a fraction of the price.

Now they are doing it with the Apple Watch. Which is incredibly timeous on China’s part.

You can purchase your “iwatch” online for only $40, a massive discount from the $350+ you’ll be paying for a real Apple Watch. The only problem is that it runs on Android, so it’s not going to cosy up easily to your iPhone, iPad, iPod and MacBook. There will be no happy family of little Apple’s.

Alibaba, known the world over, has an online shopping service called Taobao (similar to eBay and Amazon’s Marketplace) where the watches are being advertised.

The ads use Apple imagery but are very clear to tell the buyer that they are not real Apple watches.

An Alibaba spokesperson told the BBC that the company “is dedicated to the fight against counterfeits”, with the owner of Taobao saying they do remove “deceptive adverts”. FYI, Digicape sells authentic Apple products, if ever you need an Apple anything.

Look, either way, kudos to China for moving so swiftly on what is sure to be one of the biggest selling gadgets of our time.

[Source: BBC]