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Look on the back of your iPhone or MacBook. Where does it say it's manufactured? Apple and others don't build their stuff in China anymore because it's the che
by ChuckNorris89 4y ago
Look on the back of your iPhone or MacBook. Where does it say it's manufactured?
Apple and others don't build their stuff in China anymore because it's the cheapest option. Far from it. The electronics supplier I used to have as a customer would assemble stuff in Ukraine(pre-war) because the worker wages there were lower than in China. But they didn't assemble iPhones there or anything close to that quality, complexity or volume. If you just need a country to assemble pre-made components as if it were LEGOs, that's not dealing with super high volumes and high complexity, like white goods for example, then even Eastern Europe is cheaper than China.
They build stuff in China because of the entire supply chain supporting the manufacture and assembly of such cutting edge devices in high volume. Stuff like machining millions of small aluminium/steel frames, batteries, tiny screws, custom flex cables or connectors. It's much easier to ramp up production of iPhones when a lot of these parts (outside the semiconductor chips which need to be imported) are developed and manufactured right next door to the final assembly and testing plant, instead of another country. Also, it makes your prototyping much faster since you can have the next iteration of a part on your doorstep in less than 24 hours.
Now China is already gaining significant market share in cutting edge OLED display market to muscle out Samsung and LG. Look up BOE. Apple used their displays in the iPhone 14 series and will use even more in the iPhone 15. China was also pushing strong in cutting edge chip manufacturing but US & allies made sure to knee-cap them in time to slow them down.
Scuffing off China as just a country for cheap manufacturing is a gross underestimation that hasn't been true in over 10 years.
- fomine3 4y agoThough Chinese OLED manufacturers are growing, I don't know they muscle out Koreans. https://www.oled-info.com/omdia-chinese-oled-makers-increase-their-market-share-over-20 https://www.oled-info.com/omdia-chinese-oled-makers-increase...