Fake Flash Memory Spreading Quickly in China
Posted 09/17/08 at 10:13:03 AM | by Paul Lilly
As if times weren't tough enough for memory chip manufacturers, who recently bemoaned that the market is the worst it has been in 15 years, the challenges just keep coming. Not only do chip makers have to contend with an oversupply of memory, but according to a DigiTimes report, fake NAND flash memory is making the rounds in China, which can only further hurt the industry.
Samsung may end up bearing the brunt of the scheme, as most of the counterfeit memory is being made available as Samsung-branded chips and sold at bargain basement pricing. Even worse, though the counterfeiters package the memory as finished products, many are being found without so much as a die inside.
Image Credit: Samsung
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Honestly I feel sorry for
Submitted by Shalbatana on Thu, 2008-09-18 07:52
Honestly I feel sorry for them, and for everyone there and around the world who has been effected.
There was a yahoo story about their own children falling sick and 4 dying because of tainted baby formula, where someone added a chemical to make the formula seem more vitamin enriched than it really was. Honestly, how much more expensive would it have been to simply add the vitamins?
I used to think it was a FT-rest of the-W philosophy these scammers had, now I realize it's simply a get rich quick and don't care who [literally] suffers. makes it even more sad.
This will get worse before it gets better.
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No one surprised? Anyone? Really? No one at all?
Submitted by Cache on Wed, 2008-09-17 17:21
The Communist party may rule China as far as the world is concerned, but it's a haven for every illegal, counterfeit, and fake item produced worldwide. The communists can't do a damned about it, either. They are completely at the mercy of every sweatshop producing these goods. On the bright side, it does mean that the communist party there is dying and it is only a matter of time before they are laid to rest.
The down side is that until earnest, strong businessmen clean house in China, it will always be a place to expect anything (and every scheme) for sale.
Submitted by linkmaster6 on Wed, 2008-09-17 11:41
Of course soemthing like this is going to come out of asia, nothing against the place but its not like this is the only illegal thing going on over there. Try to stick to big name stores or at least well known ones in your own country
Maybe I'm
Submitted by jwalch.hawk on Wed, 2008-09-17 09:14
Maybe I'm misremembering/imagining, but wasn't there a similar issue with counterfeit surge protectors like a a couple years ago? I think it was prolific in China as well - not that I'm trying to knock China, but it seems like a wide set of circumstances (high population, highly industrial as opposed to arguably post-industrial US and Japan, emerging international economic significance, and others) make China really conducive to these sorts of counterfeit schemes. It's really unfortunate because so many common consumer products (flash memory as the case in point here) are really good targets for these sorts of things because they're produced largely in China. Kind of a precarious situation, I think.
Counterfeits go back a long ways....
Submitted by Marcus_Soperus on Wed, 2008-09-17 09:27
The hardware counterfeiting problem's been around a long time. Over a decade ago, for example, there were 486-class motherboards that included fake cache RAM chips. More recent examples have included fake Adaptec controllers, counterfeit Microsoft mice, and counterfeit motherboards. Given the widespread use of offshore manufacturing, it's hard to think of a good solution, but we need one. Sooner or later (if it hasn't happened yet), somebody's going to be hurt or killed because of the failure of a counterfeit computer component.
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It's amazing how illogical a business built on binary logic can be.
Submitted by nsvander on Wed, 2008-09-17 21:47
You forgot to mention the industrial espionage ordeal that resulted in hundreds of thousands of bad capcitors, that would pop or rupture over time. I think those were also from China.
Submitted by jwalch.hawk on Thu, 2008-09-18 05:51
Well, it was Taiwan, which is governed by China. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague)
Though that's slightly different than this in that they were just a poor quality product due to the fact that people decided to cut corners... Whereas here you've got a product that is in no way what it's masquerading as. At least these capacitors, were, you know, actually capacitors, albeit very poor ones.
In any case... There does seem to be quite a litany of these type of incidents. Kinda concerning when you consider that it seems like 95% of stuff is made in China.
Submitted by Marcus_Soperus on Thu, 2008-09-18 12:42
Although the mainland Chinese government likes to refer to Taiwan as a "rebellious province," Taiwan is actually an independent nation. Taiwan is also known as the Republic of China, and unlike with the mainland flavor, in the ROC people actually get to vote on who's in charge, and governments change on a regular schedule.
Long live free China - Taiwan!
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It's amazing how illogical a business built on binary logic can be.
Submitted by sdcat on Thu, 2008-10-02 10:36
this has turnd into political. The relationship between Taiwan and mainland China is very simple, they are all "China."
ROC (The Republic of China), the country title contains mainland China and its lands and islands, including Taiwan.
PROC (The People's Republic of China), also contains mainland China and its lands and islands, including Taiwan.
The major differences between both were, the goverment of ROC located in Taiwan, and the goverment of PROC located in mainland China, and their idealism of governing is different. Those are the basic major differences.
Submitted by Bohica55 on Sun, 2008-10-26 11:07
As much as I hate politics, I detest ignorance even more. The PROC does NOT include Taiwan as much as the mainland would like to think.
The UN does not recognize Taiwan, but the USA regards Taiwan as an ally and has an agreement in place like they do with Isreal. They help protect Taiwan from the Big Bully across the strait and supply military equipment also. China is ruled by the military and Taiwan is democratic. BIG DIFFERENCE!! Also material produced in China is usually junk while the quality material comes from Taiwan.
Pay attention to politics and you may learn a bit, it's usually confusing but you can pick up the basics by reading the news.
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