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iPhone quality standards require 1,200 workers per production line
- retskrad 4y agoMakes sense. The iPhone is arguably the most successful corporate product of all time and if its reputation crumbles, so does the Apple brand.
- hgsgm 4y agoWhy would higher quality demand more workers? Higher compexity would.
- plasticchris 4y agoMore tests/checks require more workers?
- rsynnott 4y agoYeah, I'd assume this is largely _actually_ about complexity. Maybe there is more manual QA, but probably not a _thousand people_ doing manual QA.
- hgsgm 4y ago> For Chinese Android phones, we only have to assign 100 workers per production line, but we need 1,200 for the iPhone,” So more of a "Chinese domestic vs export" comparison than iPhone vs anything else comparison.
- dahfizz 4y agoYeah, I would rather a comparison to Samsung's flagship.
- rsynnott 4y ago> “For Chinese Android phones, we only have to assign 100 workers per production line, but we need 1,200 for the iPhone,” Chiang said, underlining Apple’s exacting demands. I'm not sure that this _necessarily_ says that much about "exacting demands"; a lot of that could come down to different design compromises (a once-piece plastic body would presumably require a less complex line than Apple's glass-and-metal one, say). I'd imagine Apple's quality requirements _are_ higher than the average OEM, but you can't say that much about that just based on production line size.
- hnbad 4y agoEven so this is not exactly an apples to apples (pardon the pun) comparison. There's no reason to assume Chinese Android phones refers to any devices built for the international market or that the Android phones in question are built to the same standard as those for the international market. Since iPhones for the Chinese market are likely built to the same standard as iPhones sold internationally (as Apple would likely not want lower quality iPhones to end up being resold to US customers) this may very well be a completely meaningless comparison. I don't doubt Apple has higher requirements than even Android for the US market but the article is built around a quote that doesn't actually demonstrate that.
- spiffytech 4y agoRelated: No, You Can’t Manufacture That Like Apple Does https://beneinstein.medium.com/no-you-cant-manufacture-that-like-apple-does-93bea02a3bbf https://beneinstein.medium.com/no-you-cant-manufacture-that-... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34272215 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34272215 (2014)
- vitorsr 4y agoCommensurate with the growing number of Apple IPs related to semiconductor design: https://patents.google.com/?q=semicondutor+AND+silane&assignee=Apple&country=US&status=GRANT&type=PATENT https://patents.google.com/?q=semicondutor+AND+silane&assign...
- Scaevolus 4y agoAre these production lines running at the same scale, in terms of phones per hour? There aren't many Android phones being produced in volumes anywhere near Apple's.
- olliej 4y agoI feel like I’d like a like vs like comparison here. It’s unsurprising that there’s more QA than at the cheapest penny pinching end of the android market, but how does this compare to the various flagship models?