In a 20-minute video posted on Youku — the Chinese YouTube equivalent — Liu Xinying demonstrates how to assemble an iPad look-a-like using computer parts, a touch screen and a case with a keypad, to the sound of metal music.<\/p>\n
At the end of the video dubbed “DIY IPAD 3”, the IT whizz shows off the finished version — an apparently functional tablet computer that looks like a thick iPad but runs on Windows, an operating system made by rival Microsoft.<\/p>\n
News of Liu’s apparent feat spread on several foreign and Chinese technology websites, as well as on the nation’s Twitter-like Weibo service.<\/p>\n
When contacted by AFP, the 21-year-old from the eastern province of Shandong said that since he posted the video online a month ago, he has knocked back requests from a dozen pepole wanting him to make them a DIY iPad.<\/p>\n
“I did this for fun,” said Liu, who works at a computer store in Jinan city.<\/p>\n
“It cost me 2,000 yuan ($309) to make it, so I guess that’s how much it’s worth.”<\/p>\n
By comparison, the cheapest 16-gigabyte version of the iPad 2 sells for 3,688 yuan in China, while the most expensive 64-gigabyte model costs 5,288 yuan.<\/p>\n
iPads and iPhones are hugely popular in China — the world’s largest Internet market with 457 million online users — and the launch of new models has been known to trigger fights and even crimes.<\/p>\n
Last month, a court in the southern province of Guangdong sentenced three people to prison for stealing the design to the iPad 2 and using it to make fake tablet computers.<\/p>\n
And Apple was forced to compensate a customer who sustained injuries in a fight at its Beijing flagship store in May, when the iPad 2 was launched.<\/p>\n