4 ms·

Components are not made in China, at least mostly. Chips are from tsmc for example. Mainland China is responsible for the final assembly.

chrismeller 7y ago
According to the link another commentor replied to my comment with, which includes the actual per-component cost breakdown, the most expensive part is the Samsung display. Where is that manufactured? Well, in 2017 Samsung was planning the world’s largest plant in... you guessed it... China. Even if some details or price estimates are wrong, the fact that they are dependent upon a third party for the most expensive component with no obvious alternative is a problem.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  Even if Samsung plans to put a plant in China, they still have production capacity in Korea. In fact, most of the components that’s come out of China are fungible like that. Apple tends to have multiple display providers, even for the same phone model (Sharp, LG, Samsung). They are on top of that problem, mostly.
  - solarkraft 7y ago
    Somewhat OT: How do you guarantee for quality/consistency when you have multiple suppliers for a part as sensitive as this?
    - bradstewart 7y ago
      You provide a very specific definition of "quality" (contrast, brightness, power consumption, color levels, etc, etc) and tell your suppliers to meet it.
  - ksec 7y ago
    >Apple tends to have multiple display providers That is only for LCD. Not for OLED, they are only from Samsung.
    - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
      Until LG's production comes online, that is correct.
dirtyid 7y ago
CTRL+F through Apple's supplier list: https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple-Supplier-List.pdf https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple-Supp... China (381) India (9) US (65) Japan (135) Korea (41) Outsourcing to India will follow the same trend as other Chinese OEMs doing final assembly in India to circumvent 20% import tariff on phones. Most of the materials are still going to be procured from Chinese supply chains.
- H8crilA 7y ago
  You need to understand the political difficulty with calling your supplier Taiwanese before reading any list like this. Pretty sure this list would count tsmc as a Chinese company.
  - dirtyid 7y ago
    You should at least read the list before making assumptions. The official suppliers list clearly differentiates between PRC (381) and Taiwan (67). From cursory reading, China supplies more materials and components than all other country combined. Some of it is lower tech and can be replaced, but not all of it and certainly not in the short term. Edit: To add, China's strength is both logistics and the ability to setup new production processes. Mature processes for old phones can be moved to India for production, but major hardware changes in new sku is still only viable in China because only China has the expertise, logistics, capacity to rapidly iterate and trouble shoot new products.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

chrismeller 7y ago

According to the link another commentor replied to my comment with, which includes the actual per-component cost breakdown, the most expensive part is the Samsung display. Where is that manufactured? Well, in 2017 Samsung was planning the world’s largest plant in... you guessed it... China. Even if some details or price estimates are wrong, the fact that they are dependent upon a third party for the most expensive component with no obvious alternative is a problem.

seanmcdirmid 7y ago
Even if Samsung plans to put a plant in China, they still have production capacity in Korea. In fact, most of the components that’s come out of China are fungible like that. Apple tends to have multiple display providers, even for the same phone model (Sharp, LG, Samsung). They are on top of that problem, mostly.
- solarkraft 7y ago
  Somewhat OT: How do you guarantee for quality/consistency when you have multiple suppliers for a part as sensitive as this?
  - bradstewart 7y ago
    You provide a very specific definition of "quality" (contrast, brightness, power consumption, color levels, etc, etc) and tell your suppliers to meet it.
- ksec 7y ago
  >Apple tends to have multiple display providers That is only for LCD. Not for OLED, they are only from Samsung.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    Until LG's production comes online, that is correct.

dirtyid 7y ago

CTRL+F through Apple's supplier list: https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple-Supplier-List.pdf https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple-Supp... China (381) India (9) US (65) Japan (135) Korea (41) Outsourcing to India will follow the same trend as other Chinese OEMs doing final assembly in India to circumvent 20% import tariff on phones. Most of the materials are still going to be procured from Chinese supply chains.

H8crilA 7y ago
You need to understand the political difficulty with calling your supplier Taiwanese before reading any list like this. Pretty sure this list would count tsmc as a Chinese company.
- dirtyid 7y ago
  You should at least read the list before making assumptions. The official suppliers list clearly differentiates between PRC (381) and Taiwan (67). From cursory reading, China supplies more materials and components than all other country combined. Some of it is lower tech and can be replaced, but not all of it and certainly not in the short term. Edit: To add, China's strength is both logistics and the ability to setup new production processes. Mature processes for old phones can be moved to India for production, but major hardware changes in new sku is still only viable in China because only China has the expertise, logistics, capacity to rapidly iterate and trouble shoot new products.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]