Well I have been looking at competitors to the IPAD

[nadinbrzezinski]

and there are. What is funny is that they do not exist in the US Market... but the ones I found are pretty impressive knock offs made in the same factories, I suspect, that make the IPAD.

This tells me much more about what we have now... and I could write this, and have been looking as well, about Microsoft. Our companies are not too concerned about copyright, or intellectual property protection. It also tells me that when they come to the US, and they will, they will be much more expensive than they are in those markets or the net.

Suffice to say that the copy don't even hide it too well. And it is also oh 150-250 depending where you look. Oh and they call it the APAD...

It is part of my research into labor and labor issues. I was reminded of the US oh circa 1880, known for cheap knock offs and not being respectful of that Intellectual property either. Back then it wasn't cheap electronics, it was fiction. The books were brought from Europe and sold to the print houses who went on and well, got US Copies for which they paid no royalties.

Yes, I came this close to ordering one... as part of the research, and I am sure a few Americans are for the cool issue. But the stats were enough for me. I mean if you are going to put out a knock off at least use the latest version of the free OS you are using... just saying... that way you will get the Murican... then again, most people who buy these things, I suspect, don't know the difference between Droid 1.6 or droid 2.2... and there are some sweet differences that actually make it WOW... like double the disk space for the base unit.

Oh and you can also find knock offs of the IPHONE too... but they will not run in the US... it is the network stupid, and the US works in a different protocol than most of the world. Oh and of course I found a lot of other stuff that were knock offs of many of our corporate masters toys.

To me, and I did post this in the GD, this is a bad sign... no, not for Apple, but the American industrial distribution system. I'm not even going to call it manufacturing anymore. We don't build that much in the US anymore. And yes that includes our cheap electronic toys, that from the evidence should be much cheaper... and it don't matter what logo is on it.