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I find this section on the elimination of plastic from their packaging interesting as well: > The development of fiber alternatives for packaging components li
by RaoulP 3y ago
I find this section on the elimination of plastic from their packaging interesting as well:
> The development of fiber alternatives for packaging components like screen films, wraps, and foam cushioning has kept Apple on track toward this ambitious goal. To address the remaining 4 percent plastic in the company’s packaging footprint, Apple is innovating to replace labels, lamination, and other small uses. In the last year, Apple developed a custom printer to introduce digital printing directly onto the boxes of iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro, eliminating the need for most labels. And a new overprint varnish found in iPad Air, iPad Pro, and Apple Watch Series 8 packaging replaces the polypropylene plastic lamination found on boxes and packaging components.
- alberth 3y agoMost people don’t realize how much machinery Apple creates for their vendors to use.
- michelb 3y agoIndeed. I would love to see all the specialised equipment they've designed.
- latchkey 3y agoHere is one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqk4XKsf8oM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqk4XKsf8oM
- dmix 3y agoFor some reason watching him do that makes me nervous. I'm not cut out for delicately removing/repairing stuff.
- YeBanKo 3y agoIs it Apple designed machine? Seems like a third party repair tool.
- latchkey 3y agoIt is the tool that Genius employees use to repair phones. Third party built I believe, but I'm sure Apple had a hand in designing it.
- kennywinker 3y agoI would like them to publish the designs and allow others to use these machines, materials, and tech. It’s not really an improvement until the tech is available to all product producers.
- dev_tty01 3y ago>It’s not really an improvement until the tech is available to all product producers. Sorry, that's not true at all. When they ship a couple hundred million phones a year its an impactful improvement regardless of where else the tech goes. Having said that, don't you think these recycling contractors are using that knowledge for other customers? Is it really that hard to say that its great that such a large vendor is working so hard at these goals, good on them? There are plenty of things to criticize about Apple, but these changes represent real corporate goals and serious investment.
- zdragnar 3y agoIt's empty virtue signaling if they retain some patent or otherwise contractually obligate their vendors to not share the technology. Apple sells a lot of kit for a tech company, but it is a drop in the bucket of the broader economy... even a hundred million phones. They "did their part" in a way that 99% of other companies won't be able to.
- toolz 3y agois your point to criticize apple for doing their part because they aren't also doing the work for other companies not doing their part? How is that apples responsibility? The blame for other companies not doing their part is on the other companies. Society won't get anywhere if they blame bad things on the only companies doing things to correct the bad things.
- zdragnar 3y agoI'm not blaming them for anything, but I'm also not going to pretend that what they're doing wrt. label printing is going to make a significant impact when viewing the bigger picture. I am definitely glad to see they're not using primary cobalt and instead using only recycled, though, and think that part is praiseworthy.
- lloydatkinson 3y agoSounds like Apple's previous work with printers has come in handy again
- troymc 3y agoI was curious about that and found this nice Wikipedia list of all Apple printers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apple_printers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apple_printers
- dmix 3y agoIt's been 25.84 years since Apple introduced a printer. Their institutional knowledge is likely long gone.
- philistine 3y agoIn the Steve Jobs Lost Interview, he was extremely proud of having made Apple the number one company in printers in terms of profit when he was kicked out. He remembered all the business deals he made with Adobe and others to start Apple’s laser printers. You can tell he was sour they pissed away that advantage.
- rasz 3y agoApple laser printer business was printing money. Apple was buying Canon engines and outsourcing RIP to Adaptec. https://techmonitor.ai/technology/personal_laserwriter_ntr_printer_is_made_by_adaptec https://techmonitor.ai/technology/personal_laserwriter_ntr_p... Oral History of Grant Saviers, part 2 of 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od830KDrLUU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od830KDrLUU https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2023/04/102795787-05-01-acc.pdf https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20... "We actually made the imager, the raster imaging guts for the Apple LaserWriter. And I was just fascinated by Apple's business model. They shipped, drop shipped from I guess it was Fuji or from Ricoh or Cannon. I guess it was Cannon. They bought the Cannon engine with no controller and they told us when to ship the controller, the power cord and the manuals in a box for the customer to put it into the printer. So they never touched the printer at all. It was a brilliant <laughs> business model. No inventory. <laughs> No payables, you know, all receivables. <laughs> "
- msoad 3y agoThe amount of plastic you see in an iPhone package is a small percentage of how much plastic is used to manufacture the iPhone. Every single component is packed inside of plastic containers.
- anonymouskimmer 3y agoI would guess many of those containers are reused.
- hackmiester 3y agoSure, but, they control what happens next. Whereas by including plastic in the packaging, it's practically guaranteed to go straight into the trash.
- mrexroad 3y agoSource?