A lookalike of an I-phone 5 is available for Rs 25,000 in the grey market of Delhi, in this respect small city like Ranchi is not lagging far behind. The ones having a smaller budget can avail latest lookalike of any branded cell phone from the grey market of the city with the entire
features in tacked @ Rs 3000, where as the original will cost him or her around Rs 26,000. At the first look no one can make a difference between the lookalike of a branded cell phone and the original one, as these sets are so much closer to the original. At the present time, where features are more important than balance, looks are more important the battery life and touch screen is more important than guaranty; these lookalikes have created their own market and a successful one too.
People, specially the younger generations is attracted towards these lookalike phones, as cell phones have become a status symbol for them and are available easily at a price, 10 times cheaper than the original ones. “I have a dummy of a Samsung Galaxy S III and it is in no way different from the original in terms of looks and features. All the other comparable aspects when seen at once also seem to be same and it is much cheaper than the original one too,” said Sandeep Pandey a student of St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi.
These lookalikes of Samsung, Sony, Nokia even Apple can easily be found in Daily Market and some other shops of the city, which deal only in lookalike cell phones. As these phones are dominating the cell phone market, in the same way it is most preferable brand in the dummy market too.
“lookalikes of different cell phone brands are available in our shop as they are in demand among the people, especially among the youth,” said a shop owner at Daily Market With due respect to the original cell phone brands, seeing all the aspects that people keep in mind while buying a cell phone like price, looks, features, battery life etc, the lookalikes of a branded cell phone seems to be dominating the original ones.