I don’t have the strength or wherewithal to blog about yet another block, so instead of talking about the blocked/not-blocked status of Google today in the PRC, I thought I’d go instead with a bit of levity.
Fortunately China’s shanzhai culture never leaves a man wanting for a chuckle, and it is especially amusing when that pseudo product offers up the latest un-authorized endorsement from a celebrity in a Chinese ad. This time it’s none other than the President of the United States, Barack Obama, touting the wonders of his beloved BlackBlockberry.
From WSJ China Journal: “The ad promotes a smartphone called the “BlockBerry?? 9500” (??, xuanfeng, means “whirlwind”), that more-than-slightly resembles the BlackBerry Storm, Research In Motion’s (RIMM) first touch-screen device, released last fall. The touch-screen BlockBerry purportedly runs on Windows Mobile software, has WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and 3G wireless capabilities, and comes in six colors, from purple to champagne.”
The post astutely points out that the image contains some rather sloppy design work, with the image of Barry-O having been reversed, causing the lapel pin to not only appear on the wrong side, but with the flag backwards as well — I guess (ahem) accuracy wasn’t what the ad is going for.
The tagline beneath Obama reads: “Obama’s BlackBerry. My Blockberry?? 9500”
When China Journal contacted MobileUncle, the Web site where the ad first appeared, they were informed that the producer of the Blockberry is a factory in Shenzhen, which despite the name on the ad, is not called Haff-Comm. Shanzhai or not, this WiFi/Bluetooth enabled, 3G ready, Windows Mobile handset, is sure to be a popular product when it hits electronic markets and online Taobao shops next month sporting the relatively low price tag of around 1500 RMB ($220 USD) — the Blackberry Storm runs about double that.
(h/t FarWestChina/HHR)
