14 DAY TRIAL // European review and price comparison site Dooyoo.co.uk has issued a note based on the widespread reports of copycat Apple retail stores in China, offering its own take on the matter.
The analytical note does little to shed light on any new developments since the closure of two fake stores in Kunming, but the company does make a good point in saying “It has been a battle of the brands. Except in this case the brand was the same each side; or at least mimetically.”
“Although the shops were in fact selling genuine, bona fide Apple products, they weren't carrying the official Apple logo and therefore did not qualify as a genuine store,” says Dooyoo.
According to the review site, the argument is that an attempt to re-brand a genuine brand cannot ever carry a business license, however realistic the copying may be.
As reported by an American blogger living in China, the fake Apple stores replicated the originals so well that even the staff though they were working for Apple.
“This is an obvious fact that would not escape Apple customers who had bought their laptops thinking they were making a transaction from one of the brand's famous stores,” adds Dooyoo.
Their conclusion:
'Apple is Apple because it has created and built its entire brand and empire. Customers are both comforted and reassured by the brand, in particular when they purchase their Apple Mac laptops, a core representative of the Apple products. Whether these products are genuine or not, that these are not bought from a real Apple store is the cold, technical truth of the matter.'
Although authorities in Kunming, China have done well to close the business of two fake Apple stores, several others remain scattered through the country.