You know your company has a hot product when knockoffs start appearing, and in Apple’s case, this happens to be its highly successful iPod-line. Here are five clones you may have not see before. Would you buy any of these?
iPod Zano
“Razzer001” provides us with a brief video review of an iPod Nano clone. This particular model features a 1.8-inch TFT-LCD display, 2GB of memory, a built-in FM tuner, and photo viewer.
Note that the wheel for this Nano is not operated by touching the wheel, it must be clicked for selecting files and video
AOL’s iPod Clone: “Smartscreen Media Device”
AOL has unveiled their own Linux-powered iPod clone, called the “Smartscreen Media Device”. It features a 30GB hard drive, integrated Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Supported media formats include, MP3, WMA, MPEG-4, and WMV. Pricing and availability have not yet been announced.
AOL is planning to release a truly ugly player that counters its ugliness with a varied and genuinely intriguing feature set: maybe our — non-corporate — parents were right, beauty really is only skin deep! According to PC Magazine, we should expect to see a retail release of the Smartscreen Media Device sometime around the second or third quarter of 2007
[Source]
i-Bob: iPod Nano Clone
A Chinese company has created an iPod Nano clone called the i-Bob. Just about everything looks the same except for the click wheel/screen and its also ultrathin at just 7mm thick. There are three models available, 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB. All models feature a 1.5″ OLED Display and support MP3/WMA/WAV/WMV/ASF file formats. [Source]
DNET’s iPod Mini Look-Alike Phone
Apple’s simple yet functional designs have sprung many look-alikes including DNET’s DM751 music phone. In place of the click wheel lies a circular keypad along with dedicated music keys. [Source]
iPod Shufflez
Like the i-Bob, this $65 “PocketMedia” MP3 player from Switzerland is yet another iPod clone. It bears a striking resemblance to the iPod Shuffle. [Source]
