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It would be Courageous to move all production out of the PRC, or any other totalitarian state. Interesting to note the article mentions iPhone 6, 6s and 7. I w

It would be Courageous to move all production out of the PRC, or any other totalitarian state. Interesting to note the article mentions iPhone 6, 6s and 7. I wouldn't have guessed these were still in production!

rodgerd 7y ago
A few companies locally offer the 6S as their corporate phone; given it retails for a quarter(!) the price of an Xs it's not hard to see why.
vbezhenar 7y ago
iPhone 6 is surprising indeed, because upcoming iOS 13 does not support it. Selling devices which will stop updating in a few months sounds very bad.
- 43920 7y ago
  Yeah, it's rather strange that Apple's dropping so many recent devices in iOS 13, especially since they specifically talked about improved performance on the 6 in the iOS 12 announcement [1]. They also dropped the 6th gen ipod touch, which they were still selling up until a few months ago. [1] https://singjupost.com/tim-cook-at-apple-wwdc-2018-keynote-full-transcript/2/ https://singjupost.com/tim-cook-at-apple-wwdc-2018-keynote-f...
  - xbmcuser 7y ago
    Why do you think they started updating system/apple apps outside of the iOS version releases. They can keep updating the apps and give security updates to the older version of iOS for previous gen phones.
    - 43920 7y ago
      Do they actually do this? AFAIK, almost all the system apps are bundled with the OS, and don't recieve any updates after the next version is released; the last time I remember them ever releasing a security update for an old version was the certificate validation issue a few years ago.
  - Redoubts 7y ago
    Sounds like a perfect LTS release to me!
    - gurkendoktor 7y ago
      iOS 12 is only "fast" if you compare it to the disastrous iOS 11. At some point around iOS 12.2, our iPhone 6 Plus became so slow that we replaced it (with a new iPhone of course). iOS 10 would have been a good LTS release for the iPhone 6. This trend honestly makes me feel dirty to work in software. If you only use a few core apps, iOS 12 looks and feels just like iOS 7, yet it needs several times the horsepower to work. And unlike on the web, we can't blame it on JavaScript ads. It's just shoddy engineering that aligns with Apple's incentives.
- handedness 7y ago
  They’ll continue to receive security updates.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    For iOS? Doubtful.
  - vbezhenar 7y ago
    It's nice to know, thanks. I wonder why they decide to drop support of those quite modern phones. I could understand when they dropped support for old phones with slow CPU and tiny RAM, or when they dropped support for 32 bit. But iPhone SE is very powerful device, for example.
    - handedness 7y ago
      iOS 13 supports the SE: https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-13-preview/ https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-13-preview/
dirtyid 7y ago
>move all production out of the PRC ... >Interesting to note the article mentions iPhone 6, 6s and 7 This is pretty much why Apple or other OEMs can't move all production out of PRC. Mainland supply chain and expertise is critical to rapidly refining and launching new products. Once manufacturing matures, the process can be exported to other countries. Apart from Indian, I don't think any other country can replicate Chinese scale and specific expertise, the latter being particularly limiting due to demographics. Both would take generations to develop.
- etaioinshrdlu 7y ago
  Exactly, it would be a courageous move for the richest company in the world (by cash on hand, seems to still be Apple by a wide margin) to risk losing $$ for standing up with its moral values.
  - dahfizz 7y ago
    It would also be great if they donated 50% of profits to charity. Companies don't throw away money for the fun of it. For all it's 'courage' and self righteousness, Apple is a profit seeking entity like every other.
    - etaioinshrdlu 7y ago
      Some Apple core values: https://www.apple.com/environment/ https://www.apple.com/environment/ https://www.apple.com/diversity/ https://www.apple.com/diversity/ https://www.apple.com/privacy/ https://www.apple.com/privacy/ https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/ https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/ Those are some fantastic values. It's our job as the public to demand companies stick to their values and to cause a ruckus if they act like hypocrites. And it's our job to pass laws to encourage better values. My 2 cents.
  - dirtyid 7y ago
    I don't think it's a matter of risking money, rather annual product cycles, i.e. their entire hardware business model is not viable without China. If there's another country that can do what China currently dose at twice the price, moving there would be courage. If moving out of China means 2 year hardware cycles then that would short sighted.
tooltalk 7y ago
Yep, they are still some of the most popular selling smartphones in many markets (at least according to DeviceAtlas): https://deviceatlas.com/blog/most-popular-smartphones https://deviceatlas.com/blog/most-popular-smartphones

rodgerd 7y ago

A few companies locally offer the 6S as their corporate phone; given it retails for a quarter(!) the price of an Xs it's not hard to see why.

vbezhenar 7y ago

iPhone 6 is surprising indeed, because upcoming iOS 13 does not support it. Selling devices which will stop updating in a few months sounds very bad.

43920 7y ago
Yeah, it's rather strange that Apple's dropping so many recent devices in iOS 13, especially since they specifically talked about improved performance on the 6 in the iOS 12 announcement [1]. They also dropped the 6th gen ipod touch, which they were still selling up until a few months ago. [1] https://singjupost.com/tim-cook-at-apple-wwdc-2018-keynote-full-transcript/2/ https://singjupost.com/tim-cook-at-apple-wwdc-2018-keynote-f...
- xbmcuser 7y ago
  Why do you think they started updating system/apple apps outside of the iOS version releases. They can keep updating the apps and give security updates to the older version of iOS for previous gen phones.
  - 43920 7y ago
    Do they actually do this? AFAIK, almost all the system apps are bundled with the OS, and don't recieve any updates after the next version is released; the last time I remember them ever releasing a security update for an old version was the certificate validation issue a few years ago.
- Redoubts 7y ago
  Sounds like a perfect LTS release to me!
  - gurkendoktor 7y ago
    iOS 12 is only "fast" if you compare it to the disastrous iOS 11. At some point around iOS 12.2, our iPhone 6 Plus became so slow that we replaced it (with a new iPhone of course). iOS 10 would have been a good LTS release for the iPhone 6. This trend honestly makes me feel dirty to work in software. If you only use a few core apps, iOS 12 looks and feels just like iOS 7, yet it needs several times the horsepower to work. And unlike on the web, we can't blame it on JavaScript ads. It's just shoddy engineering that aligns with Apple's incentives.
handedness 7y ago
They’ll continue to receive security updates.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  For iOS? Doubtful.
- vbezhenar 7y ago
  It's nice to know, thanks. I wonder why they decide to drop support of those quite modern phones. I could understand when they dropped support for old phones with slow CPU and tiny RAM, or when they dropped support for 32 bit. But iPhone SE is very powerful device, for example.
  - handedness 7y ago
    iOS 13 supports the SE: https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-13-preview/ https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-13-preview/

dirtyid 7y ago

>move all production out of the PRC ... >Interesting to note the article mentions iPhone 6, 6s and 7 This is pretty much why Apple or other OEMs can't move all production out of PRC. Mainland supply chain and expertise is critical to rapidly refining and launching new products. Once manufacturing matures, the process can be exported to other countries. Apart from Indian, I don't think any other country can replicate Chinese scale and specific expertise, the latter being particularly limiting due to demographics. Both would take generations to develop.

etaioinshrdlu 7y ago
Exactly, it would be a courageous move for the richest company in the world (by cash on hand, seems to still be Apple by a wide margin) to risk losing $$ for standing up with its moral values.
- dahfizz 7y ago
  It would also be great if they donated 50% of profits to charity. Companies don't throw away money for the fun of it. For all it's 'courage' and self righteousness, Apple is a profit seeking entity like every other.
  - etaioinshrdlu 7y ago
    Some Apple core values: https://www.apple.com/environment/ https://www.apple.com/environment/ https://www.apple.com/diversity/ https://www.apple.com/diversity/ https://www.apple.com/privacy/ https://www.apple.com/privacy/ https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/ https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/ Those are some fantastic values. It's our job as the public to demand companies stick to their values and to cause a ruckus if they act like hypocrites. And it's our job to pass laws to encourage better values. My 2 cents.
- dirtyid 7y ago
  I don't think it's a matter of risking money, rather annual product cycles, i.e. their entire hardware business model is not viable without China. If there's another country that can do what China currently dose at twice the price, moving there would be courage. If moving out of China means 2 year hardware cycles then that would short sighted.

tooltalk 7y ago

Yep, they are still some of the most popular selling smartphones in many markets (at least according to DeviceAtlas): https://deviceatlas.com/blog/most-popular-smartphones https://deviceatlas.com/blog/most-popular-smartphones