iPad clones flood the market

The success of Apple Inc.'s iPad isn't just drawing more competition to the tablet market. It's attracting thousands of counterfeit and knockoff products. On a single day in July, almost 18,000 fakes and clones resembling the iPad and Android devices were available for sale on 23 e-commerce sites, according to MarkMonitor Inc., a San Francisco-based firm that helps companies protect their brands. The tablets can be illegal — for instance, if they have a bogus Apple logo — and often they don't work well and have no warranty protection, said Fred Felman, chief marketing officer of MarkMonitor. The copycat products and suspected counterfeits found in MarkMonitor's survey were offered by more than 5,000 sellers, many of them located in China. Hard to replicate Knockoff iPads may proliferate during the year-end holiday season, as shoppers beset by the economic slump go hunting for bargains. That's creating more competition for Apple, even if many consumers only buy the tablets because they believe they're getting the real thing. Apple's advantage is its software is hard to replicate, said Francis Sideco, an analyst at research firm IHS Inc. "You can only copy to a certain degree," he said. For instance, knockoff tablets may not connect to Apple's iTunes and App Store. "It's not necessarily about hardware but the software, and it's very difficult to copy that," Sideco said. Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman, declined to comment. Apple released the iPad in April 2010, and it quickly emerged as the company's No. 2 product category behind the iPhone. The tablet generated $6.9 billion (Dh25.33 billion) last quarter, out of a total earnings of $28.3 billion. The device has attracted scads of leg-itimate competitors, with many manufacturers using Google Inc.'s Android software. Amazon.com Inc. also is jumping into the market this holiday season. It will release its $199 Kindle Fire tablet later this month, aiming to undercut the iPad, which starts at $499.