Fake handsets threaten mobile majors

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iinfi

iinfi

mekalodu
Fake handsets threaten mobile majors

Mumbai: The increasing number of fake handsets in the market is posing a serious threat to Mobile phone majors, resulting in a considerable annual loss. While a fake of Sony Ericsson W960 is available as Soni Ericsson W960, a dupe of N95 is doing rounds in the name of N95 'g', reports The Economic Times.

Over a million fake handsets are being sold in India every month. Due to this recent trend, branded mobile makers including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung, could be losing a whopping Rs 400 crore to duplicates, resulting in an annual loss of over Rs 4,800 crore, according to the Indian Cellular Association (ICA), the representative body of mobile manufacturers, distributors and retailers.

Apart from duplicate phones, fakes of batteries, earphones and chargers are also available in plenty in India, affecting the market share of original ones. The sale is done through not only local mobile phone shops but also some specialized retail chains, who stock them discreetly.

Sourced from China and Taiwan, these duplicates don't have even half the features that they proclaim. Model name and numbering on handsets are almost similar to that of the established players.

"A large chunk of duplicate handsets are being sold in small towns. The pricing is less than that of the originals. They also claim to have features that are actually not present in the handset. So customers end up being duped," ICA President Pankaj Mahindroo told ET.

India is adding over nine-million wireless subscribers every month. Buyers in tier II towns and villages, who are driving the current wave of subscriber addition, are falling easy prey to duplicates because of lack of awareness as well as lower prices.

Every genuine handset has an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) number, which is unique. It is printed on the phone underneath the battery and is used by the GSM network to identify valid devices. However duplicate phones are sold without an IMEI number and without a bill and warranty. Further, they don't have the ICA hologram, which stands for quality and reliability.
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parthbarot

parthbarot

In the zone
its bad..but wht ppl will do if n95 costs them 30k?obviously they will try to get such things yaar..

its like such things must be banned and restricted..thats the thing..otherwise cheap is what ppl wants...

i m not saying its good thing..but saying why its being popular so much...i thnk the mobile majors shld take steps to make quality fones in lower prices... lowering their profit... :)

regards.
 
RCuber

RCuber

The Mighty Unkel!!!
Staff member
roshan1236a said:
But how come guys buy these fake....mobiles..
they must be fools.
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UnInformed will be a better word. These guys will love to have a flashy mobile phone in their pocket and these phones are selling at dirt cheap price.
 
NucleusKore

NucleusKore

TheSaint
It's not just being foolish. While I was staying at a hotel in Bangalore, I bought a bottle of what I thought was Denim aftershave from a store in the Hotel premises. I was in a mad rush that day and was wondering why it was smelling so bad?! After coming back to Mangalore I realised I was a victim of counterfeiting. How? The picture of the guy with the open shirt on the box, the font, the label on the bottle, everything was the same except for one crucial point, which i overlooked; the name read DONMEN and not DENIM. The use of the same font made me miss the difference in spelling.
 
parthbarot

parthbarot

In the zone
ha ha.. lol.. thats too much dude... you even haven't read it?
hmm..but its right...such things are sold with names look like originals...
beware and if u r aware then its ok.. ;)

regards.
 
furious_gamer

furious_gamer

Excessive happiness
comp@ddict said:
bought it for 3.2k, sold it for 1.7k????????????

yeah wanna see d pics soon
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He just loose about 1.5k!!!!!!!
I sell my Mercury PVM7 Mobo for 1.5k two months before and i bought that piece of sh1t for 2.2k two years back...:D
I think i am good in trading....hehe...
 
comp@ddict

comp@ddict

EXIT: DATA Junkyard
absolutely, u shud have better business skills, or even better, u shud hav sold it to me, then i wudn't day nething:-D
 
furious_gamer

furious_gamer

Excessive happiness
comp@ddict said:
absolutely, u shud have better business skills, or even better, u shud hav sold it to me, then i wudn't day nething:-D
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EVen the one who bought that cr@p wasn't able to do anything with that sh1t... coz it dont have any PCIe slot... only a 8x AGP Slot and a S3 Unichrome Pro IGP of 64MB:-D.. He aint dreamt abt playing with that rig....
 
casanova

casanova

The Frozen Nova
To save little money, people switch to fakes that are not quality products. Hope these guys understand about what harm these fakes can do. They will be having a bad SAR rating. N0085
 
IronManForever

IronManForever

IronMan; Ready to Roll...
I dont buy duplicate phones. But I like them. They have a lotta features for their price.

Its amazing that we get phones like N95 for around 75 USD. And guess what, chinese N72 and N95 cost the same. :lol:

BTW chinese phones arent as bad as the duplicates.
We have CECT, ZTE phoned retailing and some are iPhone clones if you look at the UI. They dont support any software but have decent PIM functions built-in. I could make GPRS work on one of them. And of course they have analog TV that we can watch off-the-air !!! All for around 120 USD. But if you go wrong, its better to throw it away than try to repair it. :lol: :D
 
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