The Apple Beat: Cloning Apple Stores in China

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Competitors can copy how your products look, maybe even how they work but when placed side by side, you can always tell which is the original and which is the copycat. Apple's popular products have been copied often but cloning an entire Apple Retail Store, that's just brazen.

There have apparently been not just one but 22 stores in China calling themselves 'Apple Stores' and selling smuggled Apple products, many of which aren't yet available for sale in the country. These stores aren't even partners or Apple distributors but they've outdone themselves getting the look and feel right.

Look at the picture above, that looks like any other legit Apple Store anywhere in the world. All the details fit, from the large format photos, the light coloured wooden tables, the iPad 2 stands and demo stations, heck! even the ID tags and blue shirts of the Apple specialists are exactly the same. It is all a scam!

While many of these stores are being closed in China or are at least changing their names from Apple Store to something else, can you imagine how many people could have been fooled by the look and feel of these clone stores?

When we camped out for the iPad 2 on launch day, we saw a number of prospectors buying multiple models or asking people in line to buy an extra iPad (a limit of two per person was the rule). As we headed out of the mall, we even saw one person with about 8 Apple bags with two to three iPads in each bag. We felt bad for the other people in the line who weren't getting a device that day. Now we know where all these iPads eventually end up.

What is even more alarming and to some extent rabidly amusing is the print ad from China above with a Steve Jobs clone hawking what looks to be apple juice of some sort. The print ad is promoting a Sony Bloggie as well as the iPad 2 but it is just bizarre. 

Apple is no longer a cult phenomenon, it is as mainstream as a brand can get. From tasteless South Park shorts to The Simpson's parodies to monologues from Steven Colbert and Conan O' Brien, it is very much a popular culture phenomenon.

Just last week I watched two comedies that mentioned Apple in a way that indicated that everyone needed to know the company and its products. The movie Just Go With It featured a character played by Dave Matthews was pretending to be the person who invented the iPod.

In the romatic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love  a dumpy and heartbroken Steve Carell shows up to a makeover date in New Balance sneakers and gets totally berated by Ryan Gosling's suave playboy who tells him, "why are you wearing those sneakers? Are you Steve Jobs. the billionaire owner of Apple?"

I can't think of any other company today, in any industry that gets this much play and free publicity. I guess that these are the things that happen when you become the World's Most Valuable Company the way Apple did last week after a tug-of-war with Exxon Mobil. At first, were just pleased to see a technology company beat out big oil but realizing that the company was Apple really got us thinking.

Apple has sure come a long way. For long time fans and customers, their recent success is somewhat affirming. There were some dark years, some innefective CEOs and some very serious lows but the past decade has been nothing short of miraculous for Apple.

Lifted by iconic products, increased market share and new categories of devices plus close attention to customer service plus outstanding customer loyalty has helped Apple well but now it needs to secure its future and protect its image, brand, intellectual property and most importantly its products.

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Gadjo Sevilla is a long time Mac user and technician and has been covering Apple's business and products for over 15 years. The Apple Beat is a weekly opinion column focusing on the latest Apple news.