In case you’ve been living under a rock and didn’t realize this, there’s a whole thriving culture of piracy in China. This encompasses piracy of music, video, software and increasing hardware devices.

I’ve talked extensively why I feel the iPad is a giant #fail, and most of the reasons have to do with Apple’s selfish desire to keep a pristine and pure path of content borrowing that leads straight to the iTunes store. To think that they can construct a completely walled garden around a product that no one knows they need, jack the price up sky high, and expect it to sell directly to the mainstream is the height of arrogance (but then, that’s Apple).

If you needed proof as to why this is a failing business model, here it is from the blog ClonedInChina:

IPad shipping date is very close now. Not only the Apple fans, but these Shanzhai players that are working on an iPad clone are also expecting this date to come. The first iPad clone to win the world’s admiration is from Shenzen Teso about a month ago. Today another iPad clone was shotted on Shenzhaiben.com. From the pictures, this one looks more similar, compared to the Teso ‘iPad’ that runs a heavy Windows 7. This one, running on Android OS, gets iPhone alike UI. Though not 100% sure, this device is very probably based on Rockchip’s RK2808 chipset.

It’s specs include a 600MHz ARM processor, 10 inches display, 256MB RAM, and with 1GB to 64GB storage for you to choose. This iPad clone is just a prototype, and it’s said its 7 inches version product could be available in April, and this 10 inches version would follow in May to the market for grasp. No specified price is revealed, but we’re told the 10 inches version will come to distributors with a price tag of less than 1000 Yuan (about $147). Sounds like quite a good deal.

$150 versus the cost of an iPad being between $500 and $850.

Assuming there’s a USB port on this device somewhere, tack on $25 a month, and you’ve got an always on WiMax connection from Clear or Sprint.

Ask me again what I think the prospects are for the iPad (and, incidentally, what I think Android is doing for untapped markets).