In search of the Apple iPod Nano, a walk around Mumbai’s largest grey market, reveals brilliant imitations of the product. The Apple iPod Nano clones are (un)officially called MP4 players and the the only difference between the fake and the original is that the fake players have the Apple iPod logo slightly bigger in size.

The genuine iPod Nano goes for around Rs. 9,800 for the 2GB version while the fake iPod Nano drops to as low as Rs. 1,500 for 1 GB and Rs. 2,000 for the 2 GB version. The packaging of the genuine and fake iPod Nanos are the same except for the fact that the genuine is sealed and the fake one is opened. Apple offers a one-year warranty for the genuine model while the fake has a warranty of six months that is provided by the dealer. These fakes are being manufactured in China and are selling like hot cakes.

Cheapskates could carry the fake iPod Nano around and almost fool people into believing they own an iPod Nano. "If you want an iPod and are not willing to shell out a lot of money then the fake iPod is a steal. The 1 GB iPod Nano costs only Rs. 1,500. You also get MP4 free," says a shop owner at Heera Panna.

The original iPod Nano plays music and lets you view photos. That’s it. Interestingly, the fake iPod Nano plays music (in MP3, WMA, WAV format), has an FM radio tuner, has a movie player (WMV, ASF, AMV), a picture viewer (JPEG), an e-book (TXT) reader, a voice/FM recorder, a phonebook application and also a few games. A GSM/CDMA, Bluetooth, and GPRS functions are short of making it a good mobile phone.

The interface of the fake iPod Nano is exactly the same except for the control buttons. The control buttons have a Play/Pause symbol on the center click button that is missing on the genuine iPod Nano. The fake has "M" on the top as against the word “Menu” on the genuine one. It looks like the makers of the fake product will definitely avoid legal hassles for copyright.

Dealers say that the fake iPod Nano is more popular than the genuine one. They claim to sell at least 4-5 fakes daily while about one genuine iPod Nano is sold in a week. “For people here, status symbol is everything. Even though the fake iPod Nanos are made in China, people don’t care about its durability. We even give a receipt so they can come back if it gives problems,” says another dealer.

“For me it is a status symbol. Why should I buy an original that is so expensive? It’s been a month since I bought it and it works perfectly fine,” says Amit Mehta, a satisfied customer who bought the fake iPod Nano. "However sound quality and display is bad and cannot match up to the standards of the original iPod Nano," he adds.