Ben Brooks of The Brooks Review will be upset when he wakes this morning. Having constructed a cardboard replica of the non-extant RIM Playbook back in September last year (and the real one still isn’t here) he clearly missed a trick in not doing a Kickstart project and marketing the confection in Malaysia.
It seems that paper replica iPads and iPhones are selling like hot cross buns in Kuala Lumpur. They are destined to be offerings for departed ancestors who may need to keep in touch or play a round of Angry Birds in the afterlife. During the Qingming festival, apparently, Chinese communities honor their ancestors by burning fake money or replicas of luxury items. Mind you, these replica iPads are even better value than the real thing. They have a staggering 888GB on board and sell for a dollar apiece. 888, of course, is the Chinese magic number of good luck.