The hype surrounding iPhone 5 is growing with each passing day. What will it have, what won't it have, will it be thinner, lighter, faster? These are questions that we ask ourselves and various sources on a daily basis but we still have to wait for Apple to release the official iPhone 5 details. Though we might have to considerably wait for that, in the meantime, the Chinese have already started manufacturing and selling the iPhone 5. Wait, what?
Hold your horses there. The Chinese are only manufacturing what they're sort of best at, replicas. This cheap slim iPhone 5 replica was spotted in Beijing by folks over at Engadget. Apparently, this slim iPhone 5 runs a Java based operating system which is quite laggy and its astonishingly thinner than the Samsung Galaxy S II which seems to be the only true competitor to the iPhone. You can buy this replica iPhone 5 for ¥680 or roughly $106.
If you concentrate on the design of this replica iPhone 5, somehow it seems to be in accordance with the rumours we have heard up till now regarding the next generation iPhone design. We know for sure that Apple's brand new iPhone is going to be exceptionally thin and tapered while being lighter than all its predecessors. If one were to consider the images that were leaked out of a touchscreen manufacturing factory, which is ironically also based in China, the real iPhone 5 will also have a bigger screen.
This isn't the first iPhone 5 replica that we have seen. Earlier this month, we reported about this cheap iPhone 5 replica which supposedly drops big hints about the design of the real iPhone 5. The fact that the Chinese have been making replicas of a device that hasn't been released or even shown to the public yet makes it very hard to deny the possibility that the Chinese know things about the upcoming iPhone that most of us probably don't do. Let's not forget the fact that iPhones, iPads and iPods are all manufactured in China and it's not unlikely for someone to have taken a peek at the design blueprints of Apple's iPhone 5 and ratted them out to replica manufacturers. Hey, we're just sayin'.
It seems as if the Chinese are really "iPhone-hungry". We're getting consistent reports out of China that its two major network carriers are hoping to sign deals with Apple in order to officially sell the next generation iPhone in China through their respective retail networks. Just yesterday we reported that China Mobile executives met with Steve Jobs to discuss the possibility of a TDSCDMA iPhone 5 for their network which currently has 616 million subscribers. On the other hand, it has been reported that China Unicom has signed a deal with Apple to start selling the CDMA iPhone 5 in China from November 2011. China Unicom is the country's second largest state owned mobile network.
If you've seen Chinese replicas of your favourite gadgets, you'll be aware that the Chinese are masters at copying the aesthetics and design of the device itself so much so that from a distance, people might think that you actually are sporting the real device. It's only when you power it on you realize that its just some crappy Java based software running inside a fancy casing.
As far as the next generation iPhone release is concerned, there's a high possibility that iPhone 5 preorders will start from September 30 after an initial release announcement had been made in the second week of September. We'll keep you updated on all the latest news regarding iPhone 5. Keep checking this space.