The author is correct that somebody ought to do that, but he is wrong about who it should be.
Speaking in very broad generalizations, successful businesses in a market have one core competency that they relentlessly apply to maximizing profits.
Apple is in the enviable position of having two, design/marketing/brand to justify higher prices and logistics to drive costs down, maximizing margin.
The Chinese shops are strictly in the logistics business. Like Dell in its heyday, they put all of their energies into minimizing their costs.
With no brand to speak of, they have no incentive to differentiate other than to avoid lawyers. If one of them changed the bezel and it didn't work, they'd go out of business. If it did work, everyone else would copy them and they wouldn't get any additional sales or margin, since they don't have a brand name.
The people who out to be differentiating are companies like Samsung, not these bottom feeders.
Speaking in very broad generalizations, successful businesses in a market have one core competency that they relentlessly apply to maximizing profits.
Apple is in the enviable position of having two, design/marketing/brand to justify higher prices and logistics to drive costs down, maximizing margin.
The Chinese shops are strictly in the logistics business. Like Dell in its heyday, they put all of their energies into minimizing their costs.
With no brand to speak of, they have no incentive to differentiate other than to avoid lawyers. If one of them changed the bezel and it didn't work, they'd go out of business. If it did work, everyone else would copy them and they wouldn't get any additional sales or margin, since they don't have a brand name.
The people who out to be differentiating are companies like Samsung, not these bottom feeders.