The Dyson Air Multiplier is the coolest fan I’ve ever seen, after all not only is it bladeless, but as the company likes to point out, the air that’s delivered isn’t chopped up, causing the sensation of “air bursts” instead of a steady air stream. Unfortunately their units are also $299, a rather ridiculous sum of money to pay for a single room fan.
Now a cheaper version (ripoff), has emerged from Asian company Abiko and was displayed at Comex 2010.
The biggest difference between the two fans appears to be the intake vent and the lack of a Dyson logo, also the cheaper price tag of the Abiko fan which retails for $223.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for competition, but if you’re going to rip off another companies design, you should at least entice users to buy your knock off with a better price tag. The fans are a few pieces of plastic and at $75 I’m sure they could still make a decent profit and sell a ton of these knock-offs, in the meantime buying the real thing for just over $70 more actually makes more sense to me.
According to CNET News they are retailing for $75, needless to say they could have sold them direct to customers for that price tag or slightly more processing, because if there’s one thing I know, it’s that I’m not paying a 200% margin markup for a fan.
