If you sat down and thought about why you own the phone you do, you’d probably name features such as: a rich internet browser, games, push email, etc., but what about people in other countries? The mobile internet may be big, and it may be bringing down networks around the world, forcing operators to upgrade their infrastructure equipment, but people still primarily buy their mobile device to project status. In places like America and Europe we buy expensive cars and expensive clothes to tell people that “hey, look at me, I’m a big shot”, meanwhile in places like Asia and Africa, where a car is worth more money than a person will ever see in their lifetime, and the clothes they buy are limited to what’s available in the village shop, owning something like a Nokia N8, Apple iPhone, or HTC Desire HD, says more about you than any other personal possession you might have.
Back when I used to work at Nokia I had friends who went on business trips to the United Arab Emirates all the time, and they came back with stories of guys walking into shops and buying several Vertu handsets, one for every member of their family, like it wasn’t even a big deal. Those things start at $5,000 for the low end models. Is it any wonder then why they’re cloned, and why Nokia told Reuters that one out of every five mobile phones sold is an illegal clone? “It is mostly China-originated, but it is global. It is not only in Asia, but also in Latin America and even in some parts of Europe,” said Esko Aho, member of Nokia’s executive board.
Will the amount of clones fall once people start demanding the software features we do in the west or will Chinese clones instead ship with Android on board, giving people a “good enough” experience?