Nice Phone
Ah, the Spanish picaresque! It didn't die in the Spanish Golden Age; it's alive and doing very well. Lazarillo de Tormes, if he had existed, would have been proud of his compatriots.
Those who have iPhones know how expensive they can be. Three young men in Zafra, Badajoz, also realized that problem. So they designed a phone, called Zetta, completely assembled in Zafra, that was just as good as the iPhone, but much cheaper. In the end, they developed four models, the most expensive cost €275.95 and the cheapest €169.95. Their logo, as a way of saying they were the Spanish iPhone, was a bitten acorn, just like the acorns pigs in Extremadura eat to then create the tasty cured hams. That was in 2014. Since then, they have sold hundreds of phones, a few online, many at their flagship store in Zafra, and other stores. They even met with the regional president of Extremadura last year, who promised them seven hundred thousand euros to help with research and development.
Until last weekend. Someone on a widely used forum that is mainly about cars, but branches off to just about everything else, uncovered the picaresque. Apparently, the Spanish-made cell phones were not Spanish-made. They weren't even made in Europe. They were phones made by the Xiaomi company in China. Under the battery of the Zetta phones was a sticker, like in so many phones, with serial numbers, etc. Someone who was suspicious pulled up the sticker. Underneath was the original sticker and the Xiaomi logo. It turns out the Zetta company bought their phones from Xiaomi, wiped the slate clean, installed an open-source code that was not their own and not even meant for commercial purposes, covered up Xiaomi's logos, and then put on their own bitten acorn logo and packaged them in their own Zetta boxes. It turns out the "developers" were also making good money. Their most expensive phone sold originally for €180; the cheapest for €80. Almost a hundred euro profit on each phone. Add to that regional and European funds for research and development, and we have a fast way of making a fortune with a minimum of effort.
But now that the hoax has been uncovered, and the bitten acorn has turned into bitten dust, the three innovative young men face nice, large fines, including returning all the public money they had been awarded. I just hope they kept their profits in cash, didn't spend too much, and can pay it all off. Then they can put their heads together and figure out another way to turn a quick buck.
You've got to admire their chutzpah.
Those who have iPhones know how expensive they can be. Three young men in Zafra, Badajoz, also realized that problem. So they designed a phone, called Zetta, completely assembled in Zafra, that was just as good as the iPhone, but much cheaper. In the end, they developed four models, the most expensive cost €275.95 and the cheapest €169.95. Their logo, as a way of saying they were the Spanish iPhone, was a bitten acorn, just like the acorns pigs in Extremadura eat to then create the tasty cured hams. That was in 2014. Since then, they have sold hundreds of phones, a few online, many at their flagship store in Zafra, and other stores. They even met with the regional president of Extremadura last year, who promised them seven hundred thousand euros to help with research and development.
Until last weekend. Someone on a widely used forum that is mainly about cars, but branches off to just about everything else, uncovered the picaresque. Apparently, the Spanish-made cell phones were not Spanish-made. They weren't even made in Europe. They were phones made by the Xiaomi company in China. Under the battery of the Zetta phones was a sticker, like in so many phones, with serial numbers, etc. Someone who was suspicious pulled up the sticker. Underneath was the original sticker and the Xiaomi logo. It turns out the Zetta company bought their phones from Xiaomi, wiped the slate clean, installed an open-source code that was not their own and not even meant for commercial purposes, covered up Xiaomi's logos, and then put on their own bitten acorn logo and packaged them in their own Zetta boxes. It turns out the "developers" were also making good money. Their most expensive phone sold originally for €180; the cheapest for €80. Almost a hundred euro profit on each phone. Add to that regional and European funds for research and development, and we have a fast way of making a fortune with a minimum of effort.
But now that the hoax has been uncovered, and the bitten acorn has turned into bitten dust, the three innovative young men face nice, large fines, including returning all the public money they had been awarded. I just hope they kept their profits in cash, didn't spend too much, and can pay it all off. Then they can put their heads together and figure out another way to turn a quick buck.
You've got to admire their chutzpah.
| The original is on the right. |
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