@femmefan1946 wrote:
Those $49 iPhones are probably counterfeit or, if you are lucky, stolen.
Warranties come from the manufacturer not the seller. Take your item to a local dealer who sells them and ask about the factory warranty.
Be prepared to be told that your phone is fake. Some retailers with (legally and properly) refuse to return a counterfeit and may even be making a police report about it.
i meant clones.
You can't actually buy a real iphone 4 and up , new for $49 as the cost to make is well over that. While costs are not very accurate, it's estimated the iphone 5 cost to manufacture is around $200. This is using Chinese/Asian manufacturers (and others), Asian labour, and Chinese assembly plants.
You couldn't buy a stolen or counterfeit iphone 5 for $49 if you tried. Why would a thief sell you something for $49 that they can get $200 for, minimum. No, I am not recommending you try. There are more reasons why not to buy a stolen or even a suspect phone besides price. I refuse to buy phones from individuals unless I know them.
The only way to get a clone like iphone or android phone that costs $200 to make for $49 is by lowering the quality of the components.
Both items are made in China/Asia, by the same working class with very similar equipment, therefore, the only way you can get it for less is by getting less.
The point I keep trying to hammer away at is that if the best and worst is made in China (tired of adding Asia), then MOST factors will be the same (ie. Foxconn AIN'T paying their employees $25/hr to assemble iphones), so the ONLY way to make a lower price is to lower the quality of components, or change them completely.
So the point is not whether it's made in China. That is irrelevant since both the best and worst are made there. What the item is, and how it compares to it's competitors is probably the biggest signal. If it's a fraction of the cost, there will be a reason, and that reason is almost exclusively due to a change in components.
The problem arises when people have misconceptions that you can buy an iphone clone for $49 that, may not be the same, but is close , when that is impossible.
What you can get is a good comparable phone for less, but it will not be the same and does require an effort to understand what you are buying and there will be trade offs of price/quality.
