Chinese Industries Plan to Flood the Local Markets with Knockoffs Days after the Apple’s Airpods Pro US Launch
Although the Chinese trade tensions have affected the iPhone brand negatively in China, the Apple Airpods is still a major hit – the local Chinese factories are in a haste to create the knockoffs of this latest product. These Airpods Pro are meant to be ready for sale in the United States on Wednesday for $249 and the factory workers are working overtime to release the knockoff days after the launch.
Salesmen like Fu who sell electronics both offline and online believe that the Apple Airpods pro knockoffs will be available within two or three days after the Apple US launch. This new Airpods pro has an active noise cancellation feature which is power-driven by an H1 chip. Unlike the Airpods version (which charge wirelessly) and are sold for 1,558 Yuan via official channels, the Airpods pro retails for 1,999 Yuan ($283) in China.
The Apple Airpods have become one of the best-selling Apple products and this is amidst the monotonous sales of the iPhone over the years. This is in line with the Bernstein research which estimated that the Airpod sales will increase to over 70% after its release.
A Large Number of Airpods Wearers in China Wear the Counterfeit
Over 20 million people have original Airpods in the world – however, a large number of young Chinese people wear the knock-offs of the Apple Airpods. A poll that was conducted by Sina Tech with over 60,000 people showed that a lot of them (over 60%) viewed the Airpods Pro as too costly while 20% showed interest in purchasing it. The remaining people opted to stick with the old Airpods they have.
The Home of Knockoff Products
The south Chinese city, Shenzhen which is popularly known as the home for technological titans like Tencent and Huawei Technologies is also the hub of a large number of technological knock-off factory makers. These knock-off and low-end smart phones and feature phones are made to be purchased by developing countries with low electronic devices affordability levels. A very common and popular knockoff electronic products sold in Shenzhen both online and offline are the Airpods.
Fu stated that Airpods knockoffs go for between 69 and 299 Yuan ($10-42) depending on the type of products used and the skillset of the workmen. The retail price of these knockoffs equals to over 4% and 19% of the original Airpods with its wireless charging case.
However, top Airpods knockoffs which go for 299 Yuan look identical to the original and also has similar features as it simulates an identical animation on the iPhone when you want to pair with it. Several YouTube review videos have praised the Chinese Airpods knockoffs with the general consensus being that the high-end versions are identical to the original both physically and feature-wise.
According to Fu, the first set of Airpods Pro knock-offs will be costly given the price of new design molds. As demand for the product stabilizes, the price is sure to drop rapidly as expected. Fu also added that since the Airpods are driven by the market, the price forecast for the replicas cannot be known for sure at the moment.
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