While Apple has relaxed its grip on a few things recently, no, the image above isn’t a sign that One Infinite Loop has let all hell break loose.
Apparently, it’s an example of an alternate-reality iPhone the friend of blogger Steve Cassidy over at the UK’s PC Pro bought for £25 (about $38) — in a pub, no less. The dual-SIM, dual-battery thing apparently looks and feels much like an iPhone (apart from the icons, which look too bizarre even for a jailbroken unit), says Cassidy, down to the “iPhone” and Apple logo emblazoned on the back.
One of the comments to his post suggested that cheap knock-offs like this one can be acquired here; a quick look showed at least half-a-dozen or so clones.
Here’s a great clip demonstrating one of the phones in highly enthusiastic yet (to me) unintelligible Mandarin or Cantonese.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIbw1wP992I
The question is, then — if these clones are so readily available and cheap, why aren’t we seeing more of them?
