4 ms·

It's all about protectionism. Apple should threaten to move the manufacturing of the iPhone out of China, laying off 100s of 1000s of people.

OedipusRex 10y ago
And lose all that cheap labor? China knows that threat would be empty.
- adventured 10y ago
  The cheap labor is a dead-end under all scenarios. Robotic manufacturing will eliminate most of those jobs within 10-20 years. China already has half a billion people with no jobs available to them, that are pretending to work as subsistence farmers currently. The labor will always be cheap, it's the politics that will become extremely expensive. Apple should get started on moving off of that labor while they still have the vast financial capabilities to do so.
- 1024core 10y ago
  The labor in countries like Vietnam is even cheaper.
blisterpeanuts 10y ago
Apple opened a sapphire plant in Arizona in 2012-2013, then closed it when the plant failed to manufacture to Apple's quality standards. They're converting it reportedly into a data center. Foxconn, Apple's primary manufacturing partner in China, is opening factories in India. It looks like Apple's trying to diversify away from its dozen or so Chinese factories. Apple's talked about bringing more manufacturing back to the U.S., but so far apparently has not done very much of that, perhaps waiting until after the elections to see what the political climate is like in 2017 and beyond.
qq66 10y ago
The China manufacturing sector is much more essential to Apple than Apple is to the China manufacturing sector.
- stcredzero 10y ago
  This seems to be true, and if true, it is a key insight to the eventual demise of Apple. (Possibly a demise in all but name.) Apple's foundational competitive advantages over anyone else in the West lie in unique manufacturing and supply chain capabilities that largely reside in China now. Those advantages enable the marketing strategies.

OedipusRex 10y ago

And lose all that cheap labor? China knows that threat would be empty.

adventured 10y ago
The cheap labor is a dead-end under all scenarios. Robotic manufacturing will eliminate most of those jobs within 10-20 years. China already has half a billion people with no jobs available to them, that are pretending to work as subsistence farmers currently. The labor will always be cheap, it's the politics that will become extremely expensive. Apple should get started on moving off of that labor while they still have the vast financial capabilities to do so.
1024core 10y ago
The labor in countries like Vietnam is even cheaper.

blisterpeanuts 10y ago

Apple opened a sapphire plant in Arizona in 2012-2013, then closed it when the plant failed to manufacture to Apple's quality standards. They're converting it reportedly into a data center. Foxconn, Apple's primary manufacturing partner in China, is opening factories in India. It looks like Apple's trying to diversify away from its dozen or so Chinese factories. Apple's talked about bringing more manufacturing back to the U.S., but so far apparently has not done very much of that, perhaps waiting until after the elections to see what the political climate is like in 2017 and beyond.

qq66 10y ago

The China manufacturing sector is much more essential to Apple than Apple is to the China manufacturing sector.

stcredzero 10y ago
This seems to be true, and if true, it is a key insight to the eventual demise of Apple. (Possibly a demise in all but name.) Apple's foundational competitive advantages over anyone else in the West lie in unique manufacturing and supply chain capabilities that largely reside in China now. Those advantages enable the marketing strategies.