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Chinese iPad clone released three months before Apple’s
Without stealing Apple’s hard needed thunder, we’d like to point out that a Chinese hardware manufacturer made an iPad clone three months ago.
In what may be the first case of a manufacturer trying to clone a product that doesn’t even exist yet, China company Shenzhen Dragon Brother Industrial has introduced their own ‘P88′ “Apple Style” tablet last October. Now that the product is realeased, we see that the product resembles the real deal in a lot of ways.
- P88 doesn’t sound cool, neither does iPad
- It actually comes with three USB ports, so no clunking around with docks
- It supports multitasking
- It’s cheaper
- 160GB disk drive instead of a max 64GB disk
- With a little bit of hacking, it might even be able to run OSX or Android
The specs side by side
Who am I kidding, I’m probably going to buy an iPad as well, the iPad has 10 hour battery life, Apple’s UI is slick and Apple has and extensive app store. But it’s interesting to see that SDBI developed the product before Apple did, probably inspired by mockups floating around on the web. If they get better in this game, user generated designs might be the new thing, and 2010 might be a tipping point for Apple’s almighty throne. Via Shanghaiist
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It's quite interesting to see this company is able to pull this out. If you see except battery power, chinese version is a little bit ahead of iPad in features and also pricing.But the build quality is one thing that needs to be taken into account.
The specs are not at all better. To tell you the truth the ipad has by far way better specs. Chinese clone has 600MHz faster clock but do you really think that makes much of a difference? Next, battery life. Ipad blows this away. Ok the HD. 160 GB vs 64 GB. Key thing to note here is that the clone is a magnetic disk HD which means it is slow (ms time). The flash, while its less space, it extremely fast (ns time). The thing will be able to boot 1000x times faster (roughly speaking). Slightly bigger screen, fraction of an inch. USB ports probably helps but that’s subjective. Ipad is probably at a higher quality, and considering the battery life comparison the clone seems to overuse power which will reduce it life expectancy.
Where do you think the Ipad is built…CHINA….
Apple's products are also made in China. My (Taiwanese) powerbook lasted much longer then my Chinese macbook pro / iPod touch. Broken batteries, screens, breaking cables… apple's quality is very, very poor already.
Apple's products are also made in China. My (Taiwanese) powerbook lasted much longer then my Chinese macbook pro / iPod touch. Broken batteries, screens, breaking cables… apple's quality is very, very poor already.
This is really fun! It was/is a nice clone of the apple's future products. It looks like that Apple's renewal or innovations are becoming predictable.. Or are they just playing on their market strategies and offer their market what they are rumoring about?
About that quality.. I think that many fast moving companies struggle with their organization and product quality while growing as fast as apple did the last years. But with that in mind, you can compare apple's products against their competitors in the computer and electronic market.. (Acer, Dell etc.) then their quality in combination with their steps of innovation are maybe not as poor as you mention? Or maybe they are experimenting on different/shorter product life cycles in combination with low prices which explains their poor quality? Their product market is rapidly changing! I don't have a powerbook to compare with my macbook pro but you can be right about Apple's reliability and solid quality that is melted in a beautiful design of simplicity..
ha ha… i love the line: “the first case of a manufacturer trying to clone a product that doesn’t even exist yet”… true!
Tablet PCs have been around for years, used extensively in health care and other nitch fields. This year was already predicted to be a huge year for tablets reaching the consumer market, providing stiff competition to hugely-popular netbooks.
Indeed, even all versions of Microsoft's Windows 7 have built-in tablet PC support.
What is sad is that when these consumer tablet PCs arrive in mass this coming year, people will say that Apple paved the way.
Don't get me wrong: I have a few iPods and even an iMac. But the Apple fanaticism carries beyond reason: the iPad isn't that special, and, in Apple's classic locked-down fashion (it won't even run Flash) is grossly inferior to other tablet PCs already on the market.
The iPad is nothing more than an iPod Touch XL. If it were marketed as such, I'd be more impressed (though still unwilling to shell out $500 for it).
Chinese Espionage at its best!
Leave it to the Chinese to steal or copy someone else's idea yet again. I still remember when they tried to capitalize on the success of BlackBerry several years back by creating the RedBerry — also a PushMail device, with much of the functionality of the BlackBerry, and at a cheaper cost.
Really interesting.
Joop, why don't tell us how to clone or copy a thing which has not been exist yet?
so something come out first is actually copying, or cloning, something that didn't even existed at that time?
this line of logical argument is really beyond my comprehension.
If a product is released first, and the functionality is completely different (one with Windows and the other without), how can you still call it “clone” of the late comer?
To me, iPad is a clone.
the word “clone” means nothing here.
Did the Chinese Ipad inspire Apple to create their new Ipad? Most likely. Apple have been making slow running overpriced computers for years and then suddenly out of no where, they've come up with the Ipod and Iphone and now the Ipad without a hitch. The touchscreen technology has been in Asia for years. Go Apple! Steal everybody ideas and market it, market it and market it, win the hearts of its peers and make billions. Nokia is battling it out with Apple as we speak. Guess what it's about?
Actually there are many Tablet PCs with that style…. the tablet PC is not a new creation at all, and there was a company that used to modify the macbooks to turn them into tablets…. Apple itself had projected a tablet PC in the 80's (Apple Bashful) , not so much different from the new one (beside of the hardware capabilities, of course).
The chinese one has a Atom CPU, 1 GB of ram and a standalone hdd drive.
The Atom CPU is not capable (if not associated with a good graphic card) neither to play HD movies nor to play 3D games, while the new A4 CPU from Apple is able to do both without the need of a graphic card; the Flash drive included on the Apple product is much faster then the other one, and the operating system is a ARM version of MacOS X, for sure much faster and stable then the Windows included in the Chinese product (not that Win7 is heavy and unstable, but with the Atom CPU it cannot perform that good as I stated with many netbooks) Other then this, the apple battery lasts longer and its life will probably be longer then the Chinese one, the building process and the materials used for the Apple iPad are, for sure, of the best quality, as well as its warranty and customer service. All these good things for only 50 $ more.
PS: I am not a apple fanboy
Just a hi-tech fan…
Hi my friend, I live in Ireland (Cork) and there's a Apple factory over here, they produce iMacs and iPods. Some friends of mine work there, the quality check is really strict and the materials used are of the best quality (as I can state also from the Apple products that me and my friend own). I dismounted many times my old iMac G3 and my PowerMac G4, and after many years they are still the same, no problems at all, nothing is broken. My new (actually refurbished) MacBook Pro Alluminium, as well, after 6 months, is still perfect, even though I don't take really care of my things. No scratches, nothing broken. I really apreciate the quality of these products: long battery life, brilliant screen, no Noises at all, really stable operating system (despite of all the cr4p I put in it) so I don't agree with your point of view that the apple products are of bad quality. But you know, it might happen that things get broken, even with the best quality. You know bro, even Ferrari, Porsche and Jaguar cars can crash and get their screens broken, this doesn't mean that they are bad quality cars…..
Hi Rob…. why not say that Windows XP Media Center Edition SP2 included a Tablet version of XP ???
I do not agree with the other point. The CPU used on the new iPad is a ARM Cpu which is the cousin of the PowerPC CPU's. This new CPU, with only 1GHZ, is capable to play HD movies and 3D games with no need of a additional GPU (as the other intel-inside products). Flash doesn't run (yet) but that's just a “software” issue… you know…. operating systems can learn fast just adding some applications
For instance, my Nintendo DS should play only Nintendo Cartdige Games…. but I was able to run natively Linux and a Motorola CPU emulator which allowed me to use the MacOS 6 on my DS !
So I wouldn't see it as a bad point… I believe we should judge the hardware capabilities and construction quality (added to a good technical support) …. in the end it is also a good looking thing 
Just I do not understand why people (and Apple) are so excited …. it is good, from my point of view, but sure it's not the return of our messiah (apple was designing this stuff in the 1980 by the way… search for “Apple Bashful Tablet”…)
Take care bye bye
chinese is real threat to american innavation.. as we move manufacturing job to china they copy the technology and sell it back to us….
I was wondering… who had discovered the fire 100000000 years ago, should file a lawsuit against the whole humanity for using and cloning his invention without his permission.
That's just Apple style, they did not copy. The first prototype of this apple tablet was made in the 1980, and the new one has just different hardware and modern design but the basic concept is the same….. Apple is not a child that goes to copy stuff from a random chinese maker, moreover tablets exist since a long time (as well as digital photo frames) and they all look more or less the same.
“The touchscreen technology has been in Asia for years. Go Apple! Steal everybody ideas and market it”
LOL. That's just dumb. They didn't copy the touchscreen, it's just a common standard and can be used by anybody, as well as keyboards, mice, LCDs, 3G standard, GPRS standard, TCP / IP technologie which is the base of internet.
So I'd say… since the TCP / IP technology was invented in California, WTF are the asians browsing the web? Are they stealing something ? And the fucking Radio was invented in italy, why are all the world “stealing” that idea ?
Come on guy…. be serious and human… be smart….
wahoooo,
Chinese guys did wonderful job, they cloned iPad three month before, and even then it did not exist
Fantastic
You guys must be joking… in the same thread saying that the iPad is an oversized iPod Touch and saying that Apple has stolen the idea from a chinese manufacturer… (which idea ? iPod touch ?)… guess what they stole the idea of putting some graphics on a screen with something called a processor to run this magic application, something called memory to remember it and most intriguingly something called “keyboard” to communicate with… all that sound familiar, no ?
Jokes aside, the beauty of the iPad is the functionality it brings, a multipurpose companion for the home with hundreds of potential apps, not a keyboardless computer (what's the deal ?) or a large touch music player… and by the way, a key feature is the autonomy… does the chinese “thing” has teh answer, I'm afraid not.
How could you say they “cloned” iPad when it wasn’t even there yet?
This is idiotic.
This sucks, like all cheap and ugly Chiney technology blah
where can I buy the P88 tablet in USA? P88 is better than ipad
you do know that apple makes most their things in the usa
We all know the Chines got their product to market first but what you fail to realize is that the P88 and the iPad are basically enlarged versions of the iPod touch. Apple is permitted to copy it's own design by making a 13 macbook pro and then introduce a 17 inch and keep all of the basic design elements same. So why did the P88 developers need to make a tablet computer that looks like a big iPod touch? Why try to steal the Apple look? They could have made their product red, green or black plastic with no chrome edging and no one would speculate about preemptive cloning!
Is that the same company that makes Sciphone (sciphone.pciot.com)
Still don't see the need or use of an ipad though. Inferior product.
Ooops faulty url
try sciphone.pcriot.com
This “P88″ is not multitouch at all. it's working with a “monotouch” pen like so many PCs, and have nothing in relation with the ipad, which is multitouch.
People don't get the iPad just like they didn't get the potential of the iPod or the iPhone. The iPad and similar devices by other manufacturers will change the way we consume media once again. This is not like an iPod or and iPhone, this is different.
There are other options form other companies coming out too. Look at the CES 2010 announcements.
would I like to buy P88? or to buy it?
I think that would be more functional p88 qu the IPAP that is for more entertainment for kids not for those functional and someone please buy me a website for the p88
my email is georgel_1204@hotmail.com
Hey, Joop! Open the dictionary and learn hardly about the definition of “Clone” or “Copy”.
I like chinese ipad. I only would buy an real ipad if I can change Os to linux or android
i got one from http://www.MicroRepair.eu which runs android it is grat
I just order mine from http://www.iped-tablet.com/ for $199 including Shipping by UPS (Direct from China)
Keep in mind that one of them is also a piece of crap. Meaning it does not have nearly the R&D time or quality / durability in it. Thank goodness Apple does not just reapidly develoup every random product idea that comes across the desk. They take their time and work it out or throw it out.
As I know the best iPad clone is SciPad i70
Google Android as OS is very good and price is not abusive.
Por ahora el mejor clon que he visto es el SciPad i70 ademas es más barato.
Todos los productos de Apple los fabrica la empresa Foxxcom en China (concretamente en Shenzhen).
Un saludo
SCiPad i70 rules! From SciPhone i68+ creators!
SciPad i70 – USD157 here: http://www.importandgo.com/index.php?cPath=158
the bigger difference is battery life. if the battery can’t be used for that long, what is the purpose of the touch pad?
I personally don’t trust investing in any clone electronics from China, not yet at least. I strongly believe they have the technology and expertise, the issue is the lack of business worthiness. I don’t feel comfortable buying a product from, let’s say, a website that contains improper grammar and misspelled words. Imagine trying to get customer service from them. What they need to do is become mainstream and its only a matter of time before they hit their mark.
Most of your comments are moot… Remember the Japanese they used to make clones of everything…. Now….. So will the Chinese, guys they are the future Japanese no way you guys from America are going to beat them.. 2Billion people in a country what a market share…. Do you think they care what other people think…. They are a huge country… look at google… if you go to China they even have Benz, Pajeros cloned….
To me nothing wrong in cloning as long as we the consumers gain.. I couldn’t care less where a product comes from as long as it meets my requirements.. What is this about being product loyal, do you think they give a sXXt about consumers (us)… Apple, Microsoft the likess….
You Apple lovers have misplaced your purpose in life…. Do not be too loyal to big corporations what have done for U….. Big fat ZERO…