The iPhone 3G has been cloned. That’s the biggest news from China today–apart from the Olympics, of course. This is not a big deal actually. We know that cloning is a shadow that will haunt every successful device or gadget from any well-known manufacturers. Some of them–like the HTC Touch Diamond, and the Instinct–have the marketing dollars to be touted as rival products, and not as clones. And we’ve seen enough of that already, and more still is coming.

But we also expected the cloning of the iPhone 3G to happen sooner. After all, devices from Samsung, motorola, etc. were cloned quickly, and with the successful clone of the iPod Nano in 2007, the clone artists must’ve developed a taste for Apple products.

Dan Koeppel shares a detail report on the working of the cloning business in China and how it is flourishing in the shadow. There have been many lawsuits in the past which have resulted in shutting down many cloning establishments. But one closes down today to reappear somewhere someday with more workforce and well planned system. China has become the hub of cloning and everything that has the possibility of warm reception from end users is being cloned. We are just wonder-struck to know that even the Mercedes C-Class is being cloned as Geely Meerie and given away for 120,000 yuan an equivalent of $15,000. After knowing these kind of facts it it not shocking to see the iPod, iPhone and other smartphones being cloned.

Technology piracy has come a long way and it is probably impossible to tell where it can be put to end. Cloners are just too awake to notice even a slight buzz in the technology market and take no time in copying things. The weirdest part of the story is how Samsung was impressed by the skills and knowledge of the cloners that it offered them jobs, the cloners just turned down the offers being too content with what they are doing and the fat profits that they get. The lesson that big smartphone manufacturers learned from the past is releasing the products in the land of cloning (China) as soon as they are launched elsewhere. This strategy seems to help a little but not in the long run as people who cannot afford the original try to compromise with the copied version which sometimes turns out as good as the original or even better in some ways. And there are many people who cannot afford the original. So where does piracy possibly end?

The clone market has almost all the things you will ever want starting from batteries, electronic gadgets, mobile phones, air conditioner, Chevrolet, Mercedes. The cloning of the iPhone 3G as said earlier comes as no surprise. However, I do have a question: will the cloned iPhone be half as good as the original? The price will be far cheaper, but will it be worth the money even then?

The iPhone is totally a new gift to the Smartphone world with its innovative software concepts. Apple as a long established and acclaimed company is trying its best to crack and patch up many technical issues with the iPhone. Now, do you still think those cloning engineers with a makeshift kind of establishment can really outshine Apple? We all know the answers to the questions, though we sometimes take delight in imagining that the iclone maybe as good as the iPhone 3G. The door is always open for experiments, but there is no surety that the iClone will come to the US. We might need to go all the way to China or Hong Kong like Dan Koeppel and feel the frustration of not being able to find the right black market or the maker of the iClone.