You know I'm almost never ceasing to be amazed by the effort and dedication of people who bootleg.

So much hard work. So much time spent working out how to design, construct, and replicate just close enough to make the sale and in some places even make a 'moderately' working replica.

If only the bootleggers could be recruited to actually create and sell your product!

On another thought you have to wonder on a component standpoint some of the bootleggers/replicators (wow sounds like I'm talking about some robot race) throw it all together with all that effort and sell it so cheap when a suitably crappy real version can cost quadruple or more!

It's even better than the iPhone:
- two SIMs
- user-changeable battery
- unlocked

but here's my favorite:
- "drag and drop files through USB port of computer (No Software Required)"

No mandatory iTunes. Eat that, Steve!

Strange the person may've bought an actual semi useful thing..once they get some of the junk off of it!

Perhaps the bootleggers in this example have actually produced something with some degree of quality/usefulness that surpasses the real one...well at least to the Apple haters out there of course.

An iPhone running Windows Mobile 6.x?

In other words, an iPhone that can run GS Player and Opera? And can use it as USB storage? And for $40?

I'm sorry, but I don't see a down side here.

How much is "$99 (with a two year contract)"?

Even if it doesn't, that's almost as good as the phone in an iPhone.

What leaves me speechless is that the SciPhone must represent more work and more value – and more capability – than its £25 asking price, just in terms of cost of development and production. Just about the only way to be stupider than incurring Apple’s wrath with a forgery, is to grossly undervalue the technology you use as part of that forgery. It’s a bit like making a forged pound coin by melting down gold sovereigns

It actually seems to be a very useful device, sold dirt cheap only because the manufacturer couldn't get over the guilt that they're selling counterfeiting iPhone. Now, I only wish they would design and market a legitimate brand to compete with Apple.

What makes you think that legit sales are even an option? It probably infringes buckets of patents (most obviously the touchscreen) and I'm sure that IE and Java and whatever other software are not legitimately licensed. Since any effort at branding would get them shut down by the FTC and international trade laws, they don't have much of a choice.

But I'd still consider buying one.

Not that I want to dispute your overall point of that's what you're counting, but a contract that binds you to another $1700 outlay over 2 years isn't much of a "technicality".

You could make a "very good" living being honest or make a fucking butt ton of money being dishonest.

That's the can do spirit that has made America what it is today!

Most cell phones in the US are subsidized. You can pay the $99 and then the 2-yr contract or the unsubsidized price of $599. It's your choice...

Apple won't sell me an unlocked iPhone. Amazon doesn't have it, nor does Newegg.

Another point to make is that Apple has no control over what AT&T will charge you for the contract.

Not directly, but the fact that they only sell an AT&T-locked version means that I must go through AT&T to use get one. If Apple wasn't so restrictive, I could buy an unlocked version from them and use it with my existing AT&T account, or my T-Mobile account.

The only point of contention is that the iPhone is only on AT&T at the moment.

As far as I'm concerned, that's like saying "the only difference between 0 and 1 is that they aren't the same."

For example you can't use a T-Mobile Motorola RAZR on Verizon's network. You have to buy a Verizon Motorola RAZR(v3) because it uses a different band.

Ah, but I can buy an unlocked Razr [motorola.com] and use it on either AT&T's network or T-Mobile's network.

Buy one overseas, then. The US is the only country where you can't buy unlocked iPhones.

I'd rather buy from a company that actually wants my money; Apple apparently doesn't.

It's not Apple who is being restrictive, but AT&T - see above point that iPhoines are sold unlocked everywhere outside the US.

And whose choice is that? Apple's. It's their phone.

They're the company that chose to make the exclusive deal with AT&T. Without Apple, AT&T wouldn't have any say in the matter.

In many ways it's not about the technology at all. It's not like the iPhone represents things which are that far ahead of the technological curve.

It's about piggybacking on Apple's huge marketing presence and brand-name-recognition.

Those bootleggers could use the same amount of technical "hard work" to create a distinctive and useful device which does 80% of what an iPhone does at 20% of the cost... And then fail to make any money at all because everyone would buy the iPhone anyway.

Too bad we don't live in a world where the substance of technology always wins over the form of its marketing presence. But hey, anyone running Linux knows that :p

The guy got a functioning touchscreen smartphonefor £25. Counterfeit or not, it's hard to call that a ripoff IMHO.

Why was it felt necessary to submit the story with $40 in the title instead of £25? The fake iPhone wasn't bought for $40, it was bought for £25. Come to that, why wasn't it felt necessary to prefix the dollar sign with an indication of which country's currency it refers to? Given Slashdot it based in the US and given current exchange rates I assume it refers to the US dollar, but the US is not the only country which uses dollars.
Why was it felt necessary to submit the story saying that the fake iPhone was bought in a bar, when the article says it was bought 'down the pub'?
Does the submitter not think Slashdot readership is capable of understanding things unless they're translated in to US terms?

Why can't game developers figure this out? It's not worth the cost.

or record companies, or movie studios?

Seriously? Do you think these are comparable? One is a manufacturing situation in which there are scaled cost advantages in overlooking excess production that doesn't affect your sales market. The other is almost purely Intellectual Property in which excess production and circulation has no advantages and often does creep into your (otherwise) target market.