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Speaking as a former expat in China, there are several reasons why product like this are so much cheaper. Though not all of these reasons apply to all makes\models\devices\brands.
These apply to pretty much anything electrical from China:
1) Lower RandD cost. Sometime due to wage\facilities cost being lower in China, but sometimes because the technology is basically ripped off from other manufacturers and then repackaged
2) No price hike due being a big brand name (Apple\Samsung, I'm looking at you)
3) Lower profit margin. Some of these companies are making very little money from their products
4) Not paying fees for using patented technologies (See also bullet 1 above)
5) Lower quality, your iWatch should still function perfectly in 5 years, cheap Chinese electronics sometimes only have a life of 1-2 years due to cheaper components and lower quality control on solder and parts
6) Shorter battery life, and fewer recharges. This year your battery will last you a couple of days, next year it may run out after only 1 day (Again, does not apply all the time)
7) No support structure. The cost of your iPhone includes the cost of within warranty repairs and maintenance, and maintaining shops. Chinese manufacturers have few\none of this infrastructure to support
8) Some product specifications are false. Again, not always, but a Chinese tablet may say that it has a 1.2ghz processor, but it's really only an 800mhz with fake firmware, or it may be overclocked to 1.2ghz and will burn out 9 months
9) Some products have safety standard logos on, but were never actually submitted to them. Even if your product is safe, actually getting it approved is expensive. There's no guarantee that a bluetooth device from China isn't leaky, or that it has the range that it is supposed to have, or that it won't cause your granny's hearing aid to transform into a Decepticon war machine and try to take over the world.
Please don't think that I'm ripping on Chinese products, I'm a big shopper on Aliexpress and DX.com, and I love my Taotronic headphones, and my Sumvision media player, and all of the other Chinese brands that I own that you'll never find in shops in the west.
It's just that there are reasons why "some" products are cheaper, and that reason is usually that uses lower quality components, or that not all of the fees and such that a Western product has to pay were paid.
Of course, some Western products are just plain overpriced.
Just look at how many tablets are on sale that are just rebranded Chinese tablets being sold at inflated prices. I believe that Argo and John Lewis both sell rebadged Chinese tablets wit a 25% or more markup for the rebading. |
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2-12-2019 06:36:48
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