Apple: 90% Of “Apple” Power Accessories Sold On Amazon Are Fake

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The best way to tell if an Apple power accessory on Amazon is fake? It usually costs about fifty times less than what Apple charges for their stuff. Asking $35 for a charging cable is a bit ridiculous.

According to the lawsuit [PDF], Mobile Star illegally used Apple’s trademark to sell the products, which were not safety tested and posed risks to consumers. “Counterfeit power products, such as those supplied by Mobile Star, pose an immediate threat to consumer safety because, unlike genuine Apple products, they are not subjected to industry-standard consumer safety testing and are poorly constructed,” the suit states, noting that the fake products have the potential to overheat, catch fire, and deliver a deadly electric shock to customers.
 
Then the smart fakes should be priced with only a reasonable discount compared to normal Apple pricing. Looks more legit and higher margins.

Excuse me while I go open an Amazon seller account and buy some cheap Chinese knockoffs.
 
It's all about the small stuff today.

Games aren't worried about the price of the game being too expensive of $40 vs $60. They will gladly put it at $40 now and slap on "micro transactions" enticing people to pay smaller amounts along the way. Mostly because people are stupid, and a fool and their money are soon parted. Last year people paid $6.5 million in baggage fees for flying, all because they are just too stupid to know how (and why) they shouldn't be paying them. You can either pack lighter and use a carry-on, fly an airline that doesn't charge (Southwest) or continue being stupid and saying "Ohhh, it's just $25 (or $50)".

So anyhow, the relation to that is that the entire point of Apple here is to go after the smaller items instead of trying to make mass profits off the phone themselves. Charging $35-40 for a cable has probably 500x large profit margins than the iPhone itself. So what better than to make an exclusive USB cable and take away the headphone jack?
 
I've always found the cheaper cables to be just fine, except for the super-crazy-cheap (both in price and quality). The only problem I see is that the company in question was claiming it was a genuine Apple cable.
 
Issue is much less cables and much more power supplies. Apple designs their power supplies ridiculously well, and the cheap knock offs are no where near the quality. Get the real stuff.
 
I avoid the Apple branded accessories and go with Anker; their cables and power supplies have been top notch. For those of you that travel a lot, get one of their 10 foot powerline plus cables. Fantastic for poor placement of outlets in hotel rooms.


Edit: Anker stuff is MFi licensed.
 
Powerage said:
Issue is much less cables and much more power supplies. Apple designs their power supplies ridiculously well, and the cheap knock offs are no where near the quality. Get the real stuff.
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Cheap knockoff power supplies for pretty much anything are junk.

The Apple stuff we do have at home, we only use Apple power adapters. My wife only uses the one that came with her iPad 4. It charges her phone so much faster than the normal tiny brick.

At work, I have a Tripp-Lite 2.0A dual port USB charger so I can charge more than one thing at a time. It has been solid for the past couple years and even has a regular A/C outlet on it so you don't lose the use of it when you plug it in.
 
Well maybe you shouldn't charge an arm and a leg for genuine accessories, and then there wouldn't be a mass market for fakes?

You know how the market works, right? I mean you must, as the most valuable company in the world. It's that little nuanced thing called supply and demand.
 
Most of the third-party stuff sold on Amazon seems to cost more than buying it straight from the manufacturer. Anything that seems close to regular price always comes opened or used. If I see something at an actual discount, you just know it's going to be fishy. I had better luck buying random stuff off of eBay than I do from of Amazon.
 
They should file a counter-suit against Apple for calling their products fake. They're not fake. They work, and probably pretty well to get Apple's attention. Now they may be building their accessories without a valid 3rd party license to do so from Apple, but their stuff isn't fake.
 
the online stores should investigate fake (knocked off) products and get those people ban from selling it. People expect to buy legit certified products that works. I stop buying from eBay long ago, cause of too many fake products. (mostly places like Hong Kong).
 
IMHO, no consumer computer/device cable shorter than ~10ft should have a final retail cost above $5.

Cables are a huge ripoff, and official Apple cables are an extreme example of this.
 
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Most All lighting cables are junk. They always break right where the connector meets the cable.
 
M76 said:
Well maybe you shouldn't charge an arm and a leg for genuine accessories, and then there wouldn't be a mass market for fakes?

You know how the market works, right? I mean you must, as the most valuable company in the world. It's that little nuanced thing called supply and demand.
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C'mon, now. How else is Apple going to fill their Scrooge McDuck gold vault recoup the engineering and manufacturing costs for developing the MFi chip they require manufacturers to include in all iStuff cables?
 
Every headline on this I ahve seen says 90% of accesories on amazon are fake. The initial stories said 90% of mobile star's accessories are fake. Now all the stories seem to be paraphrasing the non mobile star number in the headlines.

It'd be nice if people stopped with the fucking click bait and actually did some basic fact checking and stated the correct thing, whichever it is.
 
Probleminfected said:
Most All lighting cables are junk. They always break right where the connector meets the cable.
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I've never seen this in any of the few dozen lightning cables I've come across. Well my 5 year old cable that came with my iphone 5 has the rubber surround cracked away from that spot but the cable works fine.
 
DocSavage said:
I've never seen this in any of the few dozen lightning cables I've come across. Well my 5 year old cable that came with my iphone 5 has the rubber surround cracked away from that spot but the cable works fine.
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The only problem I have seen with the lightning cables is that the genuine Apple ones.. an probably the knockoffs as well, have the lightning connectors corrode and then they won't work.

It is even worse when you have small children who like to suck/chew on the ends of the cables. That ruins them in about 10 seconds. We've lost 2 or 3 cables that way.
 
cyclone3d said:
It is even worse when you have small children who like to suck/chew on the ends of the cables. That ruins them in about 10 seconds. We've lost 2 or 3 cables that way.
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I'd imagined this being a problem with pets, but I never thought of children chewing on wires... That's kind of gross. Who knows what Chinese industrial chemicals they are sucking on...
 
cyclone3d said:
The only problem I have seen with the lightning cables is that the genuine Apple ones.. an probably the knockoffs as well, have the lightning connectors corrode and then they won't work.

It is even worse when you have small children who like to suck/chew on the ends of the cables. That ruins them in about 10 seconds. We've lost 2 or 3 cables that way.
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I've actually had this happen. I had a cable plugged into the side of my monitor and it was stiff enough that the bends in the cable lifted the end off my desk and right into a glass of water. I can't really fault the design for that :D Really, I'm happy the plug end corroded instead of my USB port frying.
 
Coming soon, Apple will require you to buy only from them. All prices will subsequently be increased 50%. Oh wait...
 
DocSavage said:
I've never seen this in any of the few dozen lightning cables I've come across. Well my 5 year old cable that came with my iphone 5 has the rubber surround cracked away from that spot but the cable works fine.
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Over the years this has happened to at least 5 of my cables, most of them have been apple cables and the other 2 were aftermarket name brand. I'm had a few gas station cable fall apart, but that was to be expected.
 
Probleminfected said:
Over the years this has happened to at least 5 of my cables, most of them have been apple cables and the other 2 were aftermarket name brand. I'm had a few gas station cable fall apart, but that was to be expected.
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Fair enough. Maybe I just baby my equipment. I've also never used a phone case and have never cracked the screen or otherwise damaged a smart phone.
 
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