‘Maxpy,’ a 22-year-old programmer from Shenzhen, PR China, has developed and built a device which makes an iPod Touch into an iPhone. The ‘Apple Peel 520‘ is a case fitting around an iPod Touch, containing a battery, dock connector and SIM card.

What’s more is the Apple Peel also illustrates the evolution of China’s massive “shanzhai,” or black market, phone industry. Based mostly in Shenzhen, it is an industry characterized by the massive production of copycat mobile phones and other devices, which are sold at lower prices and often with more localized functionality than global brands [bold emphasis mine].