hardware components for retail products have to be licensed, and chip designers want quite a lot for licenses of their latest hw. that's why every clone so far was inferior to brand products.

but that's not the point i wanted to make in the other thread. of course china's designer will become better over time, and they have every right to try to compete established brands.

however, what i perceive as the main problem is the fact that china currently is under no pressure to enforce even the most basic human rights among its workers. in the long run, that lowers standards worldwide and hurts everybody (apart from a very small and very rich percentage).