[mschuster91]

Yeah it is because the CPU and GPU are customized for Apple. You'd have to recreate them (which probably would require a F500 company like Amazon or Google) or write a translation layer similar to WINE (which would need a couple dozen expert coders). Not worth the effort for knockoff phones.

[rjvbk]

Knockoff iPhones would sell like hot bread.

[TomMarius]

You can buy them at "the market" in Shenzen. You can even put in original Apple logic board and run iOS - and have crazy things like double storage, memory cards, 3.5mm output, etc. You have to build it from parts though, no one is selling a complete product AFAIK.

[deoxxa]

I would be fiercely interested in any more details around this. I'm sure many of us have seen Scotty from Strange Parts doing his headphone socket project, and the franken-phone built from spare parts, but it sounds like you're suggesting something even more than that.

Citations, please!

[TomMarius]

Sorry, that's personal anecdote, not something I got from youtube or articles that could be cited. See my other reply: I'm not really suggesting anything more than what you can see on Youtube, just that knock-off iPhone parts that are easy to manufacture (body, battery electronics etc) exist - not the logic board though.

[blacksoil]

Afaik, those are not really knockoff as in a Gameboy replica. They're still using the proprietary Apple mainboard and all for the most part. What they did to double the storage was to desolder and solder back in a different storage with different capacity with the image from the original storage cloned onto, a process which kinda costly amd very risky as the components aren't designed to be plug and play like desktop components

Ref: Youtube channel "Strange Parts"

[TomMarius]

There are stores selling knock-off easy to manufacture parts like body, some basic electronic components etc, and yes, as I said, the logic board itself needs to be original.

[p0peax]

They still can't run iOS apps from the App Store. They are encrypted when downloaded and only decrypted at runtime. Decrypted apps can be offloaded from a jailbroken phone and then re-uploaded to a pirate store though.

[pvinis]

Same like Hackintoshes, right?