"Unexpectedly, I verified the serial number and bought fake airpods!" Zhang Ming, who usually thinks of himself as a digital player, recently bought an airpods charging warehouse called 99 new, with invoices and serial numbers, on the second-hand trading platform Xianyu because of the loss of the airpods charging warehouse. After receiving the goods, he found that the charging warehouse and headphones could not be charged normally at all.
(sina science and Technology Co., Ltd. Zhang Jun)
Editor: Han Dapeng
Focus:
- Copycat airpods are rampant on many e-commerce platforms. Some fake products not only clone multiple functions of Apple's official headphones, but also can't identify the authenticity even by querying the serial number. Apple customer service said it was impossible, but did not give a reliable identification method.
- Behind these fake airpods, a number of TWS headphone chip manufacturers are providing support, including the figure of MediaTek, the father of the fake machine, and the famous rising star. Among them, hengxuan technology and Zhongke Lanxun are listed on the science and innovation board, while Jerry technology is sprinting on the gem.
- Under the low price competition, the competition among TWS earphone chip manufacturers is becoming more and more fierce. The average chip unit price of Jerry technology has almost dropped to 1 yuan per chip. In the eyes of merchants, these fake airpods also have a contempt chain.
At this time, the merchant's account has been closed and cannot be returned or after-sales.
In fact, this is just one of the sales routines of Huaqiang beishanzhai airpods. On several e-commerce platforms, fake airpods have long been rampant. Merchants may attract users to buy fake products at ultra-low prices, and even package fake products into official authentic products for sale at high prices. Many users said they were attracted. These stores are also closed from time to time, and then renamed and opened again. It is difficult for users who have been recruited to carry out normal after-sales service.
Behind this is a huge industrial chain. Factories, chip manufacturers, distributors and individual sellers make huge profits with fake airpods.
Apple's serial number has been cracked, and the official is helpless
For digital products, the general way to check whether they are genuine is to query the serial number of the product, but this method has failed on Shanzhai airpods.
A microblogging netizen also shared his experience of buying fake goods on idle fish. "At the beginning of this year, I spent 500 yuan to buy a fake, which is said to be second-hand and has a serial number, which can also be found by the official. However, when charging, the electric jump thief is serious. At the beginning, it is 15% of the electricity, and it is 78% after charging for 30 seconds." Later, the online query found that the power display was inaccurate, which was a common problem of Huaqiang North Shanzhai airpods.
Sina Technology consulted Apple's official customer service on how to judge the authenticity of airpods. The customer service only gave the method to query the serial number on the official website. For Huaqiangbei's cracking of the serial number, the customer service said frankly that "this situation does not exist".
But this is really happening.
An idle fish airpods merchant told sina science and technology that the airpods he sold can be three in one like genuine products, that is, the serial number displayed on the mobile phone, the serial number sprayed on the inside of the charging bin, and the serial number on the packaging box. The serial numbers of the three places are consistent, and can be found on the official website.
He revealed that the so-called cracking Apple's serial number is actually applying the serial number of genuine products. In this way, when users query on the official website, it will naturally be displayed as genuine.
In fact, these fake airpods products are difficult to distinguish not only the serial number, but also many authentic functions.
In the publicity of the above businesses, the Shanzhai airpods he sells can realize the functions of connecting pop-up window, intelligent in ear monitoring, spatial audio and so on. "I this is the top reprint, and all aspects of experience are close to the genuine version." He said.
Apple's pods are really keeping up with the trend of Huabei.
In 2021, before Apple's airpods 3 was officially released, Huaqiangbei merchants had already produced and even started selling fake versions of airpods 3. Recently, apple analyst Guo mingpeng said that Apple's airpods Pro 2 will be mass produced in the second half of this year. Presumably at this time, airpods Pro 2 is already in the plan of Huaqiangbei.
How wild are the chip manufacturers behind it? The minimum cost of the chip is only 1 yuan
Shanzhai airpods can realize some authentic functions, which is inseparable from the support of chip manufacturers behind it.
The most sought after by merchants is the airpods of Luoda chip version. Luoda technology, founded in 2001, is an IC design manufacturer. In 2017, MediaTek, a mobile phone chip supplier, pocketed Luoda technology to promote the field of TWS earphone chips.
MediaTek was once known as the ancestor of Shanzhai machine chips in the mobile phone field. It opened the market with low-cost mobile phone chips + turnkey mode (turnkey mode). In recent years, MediaTek has even surpassed Qualcomm, the overlord of mobile phone chips in terms of market share; On the TWS earphone chip, MediaTek has adopted the same strategy to sell solutions containing chips. Manufacturers can launch products with low price and good experience without too much secondary development, which is also the reason why it is favored by Huaqiangbei merchants.
However, Luoda chip, which is in a cost-effective position in the authentic market, has become a high-end configuration in the Shanzhai market.
The selling prices of these fake airpods range from tens of yuan to hundreds of yuan. For most low-cost fake airpods, merchants will not equip users with high-end chips such as Luoda. In addition to Luoda chips, Huaqiangbei merchants commonly use chips such as hengxuan, Huilian, Zhongke Lanxun, Jerry, etc.
The popularity of airpods has indeed led to the rise of a number of domestic TWS headset chip manufacturers.
Hengxuan technology and Zhongke Lanxun are representative examples. After the launch of TWS earphone products by domestic and foreign manufacturers, the first generation of TWS earphone products was launched in 2016.
In 2017, hengxuan technology closely followed airpods to launch TWS earphone series chips, which realized the function of binaural call earlier at that time; In 2020, hengxuan technology, which has only been established for five years, was listed on the science and innovation board, and later entered the supply chain of major manufacturers such as oppo, Xiaomi and Sony.
Zhongke Lanxun was founded in 2016 launched by airpods. On May 24, the CSRC just agreed to the IPO registration of Zhongke Lanxun on the science and innovation board.
Although Zhongke Lanxun said in the prospectus that it has entered the supply system of terminal brand manufacturers such as voice transmission, Philips and Lenovo. But in fact, the wireless audio chip revenue of Zhongke Lanxun mainly comes from the chip sales of white brand manufacturers. The prospectus shows that the chip sales revenue applied to terminal white brand manufacturers accounts for more than 90% of the main business revenue in each period, and the chip sales revenue applied to terminal brand manufacturers accounts for a relatively low proportion.
In the so-called chip sales of white brand manufacturers, Shanzhai airpods may account for the majority.
Jerry technology is also seeking to be listed. It submitted its prospectus to the gem for listing three times in 2017, 2018 and 2021. The first two times ended in failure. At present, it is in the state of inquiry for the third time.
Although Shanzhai airpods has supported the IPO of many chip manufacturers. But under the low price leadership, the competition between them is becoming more and more fierce.
Jerry technology is one of the representatives of taking the route of small profit and quick turnover. The prospectus shows that the average unit price of its TWS Bluetooth headset chip is in a downward trend year after year, and has dropped to 1.28 yuan / piece in 2021. The low chip price is also the support of Huaqiangbei Shanzhai airpods.
Is there a chain of disdain for Shanzhai products? There are also fakes in fakes
Interestingly, even in Shanzhai airpods, there is a contempt chain.
Equipped with relatively good performance Shanzhai airpods such as Luoda and hengxuan, they are also welcomed by merchants and users because their functions are more in line with the authentic airpods.
An idle fish airpods merchant told Sina technology that Huaqiangbei airpods market is indeed very chaotic. Many merchants sell the low-end Jerry chip version as the top matching version. "Everyone says they sell the top matching, Jerry chip version. I only sell dozens, Taobao pinduoduo, and those more than 100 are basically Jerry chips, but they will publicize that they are Luoda chips, or don't write what they are."
In order to prevent itself from being impersonated, Luoda technology even launched its own detection software. After connecting the software, you can see the specific model of headset chip, but it has been cracked by some businesses. Luoda technology later launched a new version of detection software, which can prevent other chip versions of headphones from impersonating.
However, he also pointed out that the performance and experience of headphones are not only affected by chips, but also materials such as motherboards, speakers and batteries. The motherboards using Luoda chip are also divided into many types, such as Yuehu, bull, Jiahe, etc. even if some businesses publicize the currently recognized zhenluoda chip and zhenyuehu motherboard, other auxiliary materials are inferior, and the experience is also very bad. "Many people say it will break down in a few months. Whether it's real or fake, it's a penny for a penny."
In fact, in addition to the users cheated by fake airpods, some users take the initiative to buy fake airpods under the hype of Huaqiangbei merchants.
Sina Technology saw in a tmall digital store that it said in its commodity publicity that it could exchange the price of 100 yuan for a thousand yuan experience, and the sales volume has reached hundreds of thousands. Its customers claim to have their own factories, and their products are even sold to many overseas countries. However, Sina Technology also saw in the user comment area that many users reported that the products had problems such as non durable batteries and poor sound quality.
How rampant are fake airpods on e-commerce platforms? Sina Technology found that even the official flagship store of tmall of Suning Tesco has also sold the Huaqiang North version of airpods, which is known to surpass the original, just like the official website, and so on. For the question of Shanzhai products raised by Sina Technology, Suning Tesco customer service said that this product was developed by Huaqiangbei team, the headset brand is Suning's own, and the brand name is Youjin.
However, on the product details page, the product takes airpods as comparative publicity everywhere, saying it can be found on iPhone Realize 1:1 full function on, and the monthly sales volume of this product exceeds 6000 pieces.
Conclusion
TWS earphone chips as low as a few yuan or even 1 yuan are undoubtedly the key factor in the rise of Huaqiangbei Shanzhai airpods. This Shanzhai movement has made Huaqiangbei merchants and dealers full of profits, and also pushed many earphone chip enterprises behind it to IPO.
However, Shanzhai is Shanzhai after all. These TWS earphone chip manufacturers who eat short-term dividends will face increasingly fierce market competition and meager profits. More importantly, for those users who are shoddy and deceived by falsehood, how should they safeguard their rights and interests?