CHINA DESIGN NOW PORTLAND

Haff-Comm’s "BlockBerry" 9500 Whirlwind, a clone of BlackBerry Storm that has Obama as its “spokesperson”. HAFF-COMM 哈佛通信，“哈佛”is the Chinese translation of Harvard. The HAFF-COMM company, apparently doesn’t exist, and has no relationship with Harvard University. The company appears to be a fictitious Brand from a factory in Shenzhen. I will go out on the limb and say that the Obama photo has not been authorized by the White House as the US flag is reversed on his lapel badge.

Design is a cultural activity. A type of cultural innovation is appearing in places like Zhongguancun, known to some as China's Silicon Valley, and Beijing's Yashow market. In my work in California as a design consultant, a manager at a large Chinese technology company recently told me they are as worried about knock offs as their Western counterparts. They invest time and money into product design only to see knock off copies soon on the market stealing their work.

Knock off phone manufactures called "shanzhai" are progressing from making bad copies of foreign products to high quality products with real and original innovation.Some shanzhaiji companies will one day become legitimate firms.The rise of the hacker-entrepreneurs has some parallels in the history of Silicon Valley.Some shanzhai handset vendors will one day probably move from back alleys to boardrooms. One Shanzhai spokesperson says that the audacity of advertisements like this one will cause a crack down on the industry.Shanzhai, which literally means "mountain village," a term used for mountain bandits beyond the reach of law, started off as a term to describe copies of electronic brand products but now copying anything that is popular, from cultural activities, songs and movies to all kinds of products, is considered shanzhai. Even celebrity look-alikes are shanzhai. Shanzhai can often involve an element of parody.

Some see shanzhai as the result of lack of creativity and a potential hindrance to innovation. Others disagree, arguing that it is unfair to label shanzhai as a type of intellectual property right (IPR) violation, since shanzhai often challenges authority and breaks conventional ideas.

Nokia is one of the most popular counterfeit brands in China. Nokia's head of brand protection Lucy Nichols believes that the company is able to contend with licensed shanzhai firms, or those who make whimsical non-brand machines. Nokia dominates China's handset market, holding 38.9 percent of it in 2008. "Nokia doesn't object to legitimate competition," Nichols says. She says the shanzhaiji variety that hurts her company and consumers comes in the form of convincing counterfeits that dupe buyers.

A street vendor in Beijing says: "I think the shanzhai spirit is sometimes a spirit of rebellion but also a spirit that the Chinese people are capable of creating anything." She says the shanzhai versions of French luxury brand Vertu are her most popular models. Real Vertus cost up to 150,000 yuan, and are adorned with precious metals, such as gold and platinum, and, such as rubies and diamonds. Hers go for 600 yuan.She says she sells about 50 per day to a roughly equal number of foreigners and Chinese.(street vendor and Lucy Nichols quotes from article about shanzhai in China Daily)

Based on Huawei K3, Blockberry 9500 runs windows Mobile 6.1, with a 460MHZ proccessor, and features a 3.2 inch touchscreen, WIFI and bluetooth connectivity,Sirf III GPS navigation and supports 3G and EDGE network.

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