Three shameless iPad knock-offs (and Apple’s terrible trend setting)

The iPad’s U.S. launch and global unveiling saw some of Apple’s most extreme product description yet. The device was, and still is, over-the-toply touted as – and I quote – “magical” and “revolutionary.” And it’s price, too, was glorified as “unbelievable.” Though that one can go either way: unbelievably high, anyone? Now that the dust has settled, most will agree these claims are far from true (not to officially label the device good or bad, that is. I’m just being realistic). But amidst the glory of the launch, Apple fanboys (this isn’t a jab either; I own a Mac) ate up Steve & co.’s sparkly marketing fluff like rainbow cotton candy. However, there were more than a few who couldn’t get past one thing: the freakin’ name. iPad – really?

By now, everyone’s heard the jokes, such as that it’s direct competitors will be Tampax and Kotex. Even CNN covered the story of the iPad as joke fodder, with iTampon becoming a trending topic on Twitter on its U.S.-release day. Coincidentally, just today in Metro’s Vancouver daily, an article covering the iPads Canadian release was paired with a Shoppers Drug Mart ad, which displayed a few maxipads on sale. Choices, choices, eh? But, really, by now everyone’s pretty much over the feminine hygiene thing and have moved on with their lives. Me, I’m cool with one product on the tablet market having a stupid name. No big deal.

But because of Apple’s stupendously slick sex appeal, the term “Pad” is now trendy. Knock-offs desparate to feed off Apple’s success, or fool uneducated buyers, have implemented the word into their device marketing (still wondering what was wrong with “iTab”). Below, I make note of some of these shameful knock-offs – shameful because they’re knock-offs, and shameful because they knock off the worst tech-device name in recent history.

Inkia inPad

Clearly a clone. It does a decent job looking the part, but it probably won’t perform the same. It has just a 600Mhz CPU and either 128MB and 256MB of RAM powering Android 2.1. Give it bonus points for 2 USB ports, though. Name shame: Very high. Adding only an “n” is worthy of a legal dispute.

LifesPad

This device has a different-looking shell than the iPad, but is still a clone. To it’s credit, though, it at least boasts some higher-end hardware: 1Ghz CPU, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, 3G modem, and Android 2.1. Name shame: High. It’s not as copycat as the inPad, but what the hell does “LifesPad” even mean? It’s almost worse than iPad for jokes, as there are Life Brand pantiliners.

iPed

Uh… not much to say here. Straight out of bootleg-electronics-capital China, the iPed is as shameless a knock-off as they come. It’s only a fifth the price of the iPad though, and runs Android. Specs so far unavailable. Name shame: Very high. They didn’t even try – probably because they don’t care. iPeed myself over this one.

If you’re sick of seeing insulting knock-offs, why not visit our list of legitimate iPad killers?