tried to PM you my reply instead, but i guess PMs have a fairly short length limit?

the clone manufacturers don't have to spend any time in the design phase. no prototyping, CAD work, etc. that's a lot of time and money saved right there.

labor in china is cheaper than in the US or europe, that's a lot of money saved. a quick google search says that an experienced CNC machinist in china makes around $4/hr, same job over here in the US pays $20+/hr.

they don't really need to do any promotion or advertising, as the original designer is usually the one that gets the hype train rolling on a new product, so that's even more time and money saved.

nobody is getting rich selling RDAs made in the west.

distribution channels are already set up. say for example tobeco has a clone of the velocity 2 RDA ready to go. thousands of B&Ms across the USA are already in contact with wholesalers who can get them the tobeco velocity 2 clone quickly. plus fasttech, 3fvape, angelcigs, etc. if you wanted to sell your original design bunzobear box mod, you'd have to do that part on your own.

also, the price of authentics has come down quite a bit on average. flawless has the production RDA for $50, jaybo's indestructible RDA is $50, and those are both made in the USA. other affordable authentics like the royal hunter, REMentry, twisted messes, etc. are out there. or you can go with chinese authentics like the freakshow, CLT, tai ji, everything UD puts out, and so on.

i'd really love for china to put out more and more original designs instead of just copying stuff that already exists. they've been doing great this past year! clearomizers have gone from being relatively mediocre to vaping very well, and they'll keep getting better, and that's all out of china. awesome atomizer designs like the goblin mini, billow V2, etc. all chinese!