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Your $2B number is way off. While most chips are manufactured outside China, most chip packaging happens within. So, all the costs post mass chip production (in
by writepub 7y ago
Your $2B number is way off. While most chips are manufactured outside China, most chip packaging happens within. So, all the costs post mass chip production (into cut silicon dies), including chip packaging, testing, PCB manufacture, assembly, etc happens in China. You're off by at least 5X, $50/iPhone is the money paid to Chinese vendors, or at least $10B.
Considering the 3X labor buying power compated to the US, $10B/annum is directly supporting the livelihood of plenty in China. The indirect benefit of training a workforce in cutting edge high tech manufacturing, and R&D, is possibly much higher. So high in fact that Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo combined probably outsell Apple and Samsung combined
- _cs2017_ 7y agoAh thanks, I wish I had better sources, the one I quoted was all I could find. Yeah at $10B/year, the tables are turned I think. Strictly speaking, it's still a lot less than the money paid by the Chinese citizens to Apple. But that's not a fair comparison, since it's not like the Beijing government can just take that money and use it to pay salaries to some workers. I suppose they could, over time, guide domestic consumption towards more domestic goods, but it's a slow and uncertain process.