First iPhone 6 Clone is Out, Runs on Android

It only takes a few leaks of different iPhone 6 parts and you've got a clone. The Chinese makers made sure to include all the icons from iOS 8 to make the device look realistic. 

 

French website Nowhereelse.fr has posted 16 photos of a seemingly identical to an iPhone 6 device. The phone is working just fine and it has the looks and some of the feel of the Apple gadget, but it runs on a modified version of Android OS, just like all the other clones. 

 

According to the source of this story, the clone was made using technical designs, industrial models and the back casing was copied after the rear shell of the iPhone 6 that was smuggled out of the Chinese manufacturing plants working with Apple. 

 

This is a common practice among Chinese knock-off makers, but they usually do not come out with devices before Apple releases the new iPhone. That would be because they want to make sure they can fool more customers into buying the clones and they need to copy every single detail from the original. 

 

This clone even has a Touch ID ring around the home button, but the people who got their hands on this device did not specify if it actually works as a fingerprint reader. 

 

The iPhone clone came out with all the default apps that the original has: Messages, Calendar, Photos, Camera, Weather, Clock, Maps, Videos, Notes, Reminders, Stocks, Newsstand, App Store, Passbook, Compass, Settings, Phone, Mail, Safari and Music. 

 

There's also a YouTube app that doesn't usually come with the operating system and another icon with an "S" on it. The phone doesn't have a lightning port connector, but a microUSB and the flash on the back is not a dual one. Also, the back camera protrudes from the case.

 

The Settings.app has less menus than the ones on iOS. The missing ones are Personal Hotspot, Carrier, Wallpapers & Brightness and Touch IS & Passcode. 

 

A redesigned version of iPhone is expected early fall 2014. The new Apple flagship phone is rumored to come out in two different models - a 4.7-inch diagonal display and a 5.5-inch one. So far, we have seen parts made for what looks like the 4.7" model. They all came from the Chinese manufacturers that are currently under contract with Apple - Pegatron and Foxconn.  

Apple iPhone 6: Release date, rumours, features and news

Apple plans to release its new iPhone in August, a month earlier than expected, after sales were hit by new big-screen models from its rivals, a major Taiwanese newspaper reported Friday, citing supply chain sources.

The Economic Daily News quoted unnamed sources as saying Apple  had acquired parts from various Taiwanese suppliers such as wafer maker Visual Photonics Epitaxy Co and Largan Precision, a leading maker of lenses used in mobile phones, for the handset expected to be called iPhone 6.

Taiwanese electronics contract makers including Foxconn and Pegatron have also been notified by Apple to start their assembly lines for the new handsets likely around late June, said the mass-circulation national newspaper.

US-based Apple has decided to roll out the 4.7-inch screen version of the new model in August, a month early, as recent sales have been affected by the launch of bigger-screen phones from rivals such as South Korean giant Samsung and Taiwan’s HTC, the report said.

A high-end variant of the iPhone 6 with a 5.5 or 5.6-inch screen will still be unveiled in September as previously planned, it said, adding that Apple expected total sales of 80 million units for both versions.

Japan’s Nikkei business daily reported in March that Apple would release its next iPhone in September, its latest salvo in the smartphone wars where it has lost global market share to rivals such as Samsung.

Apple released its current iPhone 5 in September 2012 and newer versions in the series last year.

A number of top Taiwanese electronics companies have been behind the production of the iPhone series by supplying components or assembling the handsets.

The latest to come onboard is the world’s biggest contract chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which reportedly started producing chips for the next iPhone in February.

That news fed rumours that Apple is reducing its reliance for parts on Samsung, its main competitor in the mobile phone market and a bitter rival with which it is contesting several copyright court battles globally.

The companies named in the Economic Daily News report declined to comment.