How to make an iClone for less than $20

Despite calls for Apple to make a super-cheap iPhone, we’ve still got mid-range and premium offerings only. You can, however, find some really cheap Android devices, so we wondered…

Just how much extra would it cost to turn that handset into an iClone ?

A back-story on why we’re doing this

A couple of weeks ago, I found that my dear mother had accidentally dropped my first-generation iPhone in the toilet. This was the model that was never officially released here, complete with an aluminium casing that made it much more resistant to drops than either the plastic 3G/3GS and current glass 4/4S models ever were.

When she first wanted a smartphone, I gave her an Android, but the complexity of the operating system was a bit much for her. She wanted something simple and the handset that I’d given her just didn’t cut it. So I figured I’d let her have the iPhone.

She loved it. She loved how easy it was to use, how simple the icons were to understand, and generally just how it required no effort to use.

And then two weeks ago, she dropped it in the loo. It was an accident, so I wasn’t angry, and I’ve heard from other women that this is a fairly common thing, so I can only imagine that handset makers make lots and lots of money from customers dropping $900 gadgets in the toilet.

In any case, my Mum did what she could to fix it, her partner helping her out and showing her how to dry it and bring it back to life.

But there are aspects of it that don’t work anymore. There’s a speaker glitch. It’s not performing the same way. The power button just doesn’t work the way it used to. Things like that.

And then it dawned on me: with all of the articles we write here about making Android devices look different, how much would it cost to make something look like an iPhone?