An Inside Look at How iPads Are Assembled and Tested

[kolax]

You can buy cheap knock-off electronics in the US too, so I'm not sure what your point is. You are dodging the point I made. Stuff isn't less expensive there, rather it is that the stuff there is cheaper, and I'm not talking about price but about quality. You are claiming stuff is less expensive in China, can you prove that without ignoring the important differences between the products? Most of the "essential" items in an American's life would be considered luxurious by Chinese standards.

I always thought cheaper was the same thing as less expensive.

Food is cheaper. And the knockoff market is huge in China, just because it isn't an official product, doesn't mean it is crap. Sure, there's some crap knockoffs out there..

No, I'm not going to go through the trouble of doing so. I thought I was conversing with someone who was knowledgeable about these matters. If you aren't already aware of what the typical life of a Chinese person is like, then I find that regrettable. You can insulate yourself in a bubble ignoring the external realities if you like, but you should at least be aware that many of us will find that behavior reprehensible.

Again, you are seeing that Chinese person's life through the eyes of a westerner. An example to get my point across: there's children in Ghana who, while live in poverty, are the happiest kids I've ever seen. They don't know any better. I agree that through our eyes, a western lifestyle is far better, but that's a cultural issue, not a fair measurement of life satisfaction.

As if that is a reasonable metric to use. The satisfaction of the people isn't the issue here. What is at issue is that simply because of sheer luck, some are being born in a Western culture, with a life that will be considerably easier and more luxurious than the lives of those who didn't win the birth lottery.

Just because you are born into a western world, doesn't mean your life will be easy.

I'm not American. I am looking at things from as objective a standpoint as I can though. Consider this thought experiment. Imagine before you were born, and before you had formed any cultural identity, cherishing the values that you do, you had to choose between being born in a Western society or in the much more impoverished Eastern one, which would you choose? I'd wager, and yes this is an unprovable conjecture that appeals to common-sense and your sense of the reasonable, that everyone would choose the former option.

You can't do a fair assessment on that. You've only mentioned the good of the western world and the bad of the eastern world. Both have pro's and con's.

 

[Aginor]

age?

Average age can't possibly be "between" 18-25. Then it's 21.5 .. which is no big deal. They put it that way just so they had an excuse to say "18 years old".

 

[JohnDoe98]

Ok then, it seems they are underpaid.

Approx. wages: $420/mo
Average rent: $317.00/mo

Although food is very cheap, it does not look good.

Agreed, and what kind of food are they eating? How would you feel eating the diet that they do? It's funny but there are some studies that demonstrated that as soon as the Eastern cultures come into a little more wealth, the population quickly adopts Western eating habits (and all the diseases that go along with it). I wonder why that is...

 

[testerdennis]

You think people in China have banana's all year around? Their food might be cheaper than ours in the West, but our diet is far more luxurious than theirs, and that's the main reason why our produce is the price that it is. We don't only ever eat what's produced locally and in season, and that's a significant reason why the cost of our food increases to the levels that it does.

lol diet more luxurious, thats fast food for you. IMO their diet is much better.

 

[Cubytus]

I believe that people are moving towards better education and better opportunities, and mechanical job will be left to robots, while we humans are going to be focusing on more creative and brain challenging matters.

Alas, you're reasoning as if post-secondary education would be free for everyone. That's what we are fighting for up here but sadly, not so many people see that education as necessary.

The Chinese economy is completely different. The US dollar has a huge amount of inflation, so $14 only buys you 3 meals at McDonalds here. In China, it will go a bit farther than that.

THREE meals? You're spoiled! Here, the same amount would buy you 1.63 McDonalds meals . And our currency is almost on par with the US$. We're getting screwed big time.

Which electronics do you refer to? There is plenty of cheap electronic stuff. If you want highly luxurious items like an iPad, then yes, they are very expensive. But that's an American company setting the price in China.

At least they are doing western-standards quality control. One can get nearly everything out of China for very cheap on the Internet (considering Chinese factories still make profit), but quality control is deficient or non-existent. Sometimes a good product comes out.

I really dislike the strong emphasis on folk from the US implying the American way is the best way of life. It's pretty ignorant.

In fact, the American Way is the straightest way toward overconsumption. It's the way that causing so much headaches to change toward a more responsible consumption.

But yes, considering in China, PhD student usually only get $7.00 a day, $14 for sure is high salary~

Students are, more often than not, getting screwed by low wages. So this isn't a valid point of comparison.

 

[clibinarius]

Again, the wages are relative. Things that cost $10 in the US don't cost $10 in China. You think that a banana that costs $1 in America costs $1 in China?



So if I worked on a Ferrari production line, you think it is unfair that I'd never be able to afford one? What about people who work on Airbus or Boeing production lines, how awful it is they'll never own their own plane!

Come on, it doesn't matter what the product is they are manufacturing and how much that product costs and whether they can afford it themselves.

EDIT: I've responded to what I quoted there, but reading it back, I'm not even sure what you mean.

I wasn't aware that a iPhone was a good designed to be bought by other businesses. As far as a product designed to go to 1% of the population, that's a bit different. Frankly, if you're a Ferrari laborer, you probably should be able to build a knockoff and afford that yourself I'd imagine-if you really wanted to. I suppose you can with iPhones.

But you have to ask yourself about that $1 banana-is it the same quality? And the fact is, that good will have been shipped from somewhere if its not locally grown. That oil is paid for in dollars, and you're not getting that cheaper in China. So yes, LOCAL GOODS ARE CHEAPER. But INTERNATIONAL GOODS (Rice imports, oil imports, electronics, cars) of the same quality are often more expensive. But even if they're NOT more expensive it means that the average person can't afford them. No matter how you look at it, a dollar might go further there, but $14/h will go a lot further there than $14/day. Its just common sense. Unless its locally produced, that means you simply can't afford as much. Period.

Also, I don't know where you're buying $1/bananas. I generally get big ones for $.20. Considering China needs to buy them from Indochina countries, that means they have to compete with the Aussies, with their incredibly strong dollar, Indians, Japan, Korea...its not likely that bananas will be cheaper in China...

 

[JohnDoe98]

Again, you are seeing that Chinese person's life through the eyes of a westerner. An example to get my point across: there's children in Ghana who, while live in poverty, are the happiest kids I've ever seen. They don't know any better. I agree that through our eyes, a western lifestyle is far better, but that's a cultural issue, not a fair measurement of life satisfaction.

The fact that they are ignorant doesn't excuse the fact that their life sucks by comparison. That just goes to show just how privileged we are for having more education.

Just because you are born into a western world, doesn't mean your life will be easy.

Not easy by Western comparison, but compared to the Eastern lives, yes it typically does.

You can't do a fair assessment on that. You've only mentioned the good of the western world and the bad of the eastern world. Both have pro's and con's.

Right, there are goods and bads to both cultures, but the suggestion that there is incommensurability here is preposterous, and one that I can't help think is being advocated simply as a means of defending the status-quo, i.e. defending the privilege you were lucky enough to be given.

 

[JohnDoe98]

lol diet more luxurious, thats fast food for you. IMO their diet is much better.

Yes it is much healthier, to some extent. But the point is the health advantage isn't one that is chosen by them, but one imposed upon them. We have the choice to eat healthily, and the choice to eat even more healthily than they can, in addition to eating poor diets, if we so choose. We have considerable freedom that they lack in that regard, and that is a luxury.

 

[chimes]

Those wages are a good reminder that if you make at least $48K / year, you are in the top 1% of the world. In other words you ARE the one percent. Be grateful and let's all try to help the less fortunate around us.

 

[i.mac]

People always make incorrect blanket statements about Chinese salaries though. I doubt many people on this site have been to China, where the average meal can easily be had for the equivalent $1 at local restaurants. There are plenty of jobs in the US that make relatively the same, with lesser working conditions. A min-wage US worker is no more able to afford meals and housing and healthcare than a worker in China.

Agreed.

Also, many workers in the us would complain because they have to actually work.

 

[nylonsteel]

re original article

rob schmitz really b***h slapped poser mike daisy good

 

[TallManNY]

Apple could rectifiy that easily by recommending incentivie & bonus plans, which they could help fund by paying more for their devices but they won't because they love being greedy and high margins.

You don't really understand how things work. Apple does not pay any wages to Foxconn employees. Apple pays for products made. Foxconn decides how that money is distributed between (a) wages for the workers, (b) wages for upper management, and (c) profit for the owners. If Apple tells Foxconn they are willing to pay more for products, Foxconn will look at them funny and that extra money will first go into category (c), profit for the owners, then a little for (b) and finally maybe a touch for (a).

Even if Apple mandated some higher wages for the employees, that will still find its way back to category (c) and (b) (for example, rent at the dorms would immediately increase or there would be an expensive "application fee" at the time the worker initially takes the job). As big as Apple is, it isn't close to big enough to set minimum wage levels like a government can. You seem to want Apple to be able to do that, but it can't.

 

[nastebu]

You think people in China have banana's all year around? Their food might be cheaper than ours in the West, but our diet is far more luxurious than theirs, and that's the main reason why our produce is the price that it is. We don't only ever eat what's produced locally and in season, and that's a significant reason why the cost of our food increases to the levels that it does.

Food is one of the places where these simplistic generalizations breaks down. The Western diet is pretty bad really. We eat a lot of over processed and chemically altered food, and we do so because food in the West (especially the US) is actually quite cheap as a percentage of the cost of living. Locally produced food is, often, much more expensive than industrialized food products. That's true in many parts of China as well as most of the US. Small local farms often need to be heavily subsidized to keep them around. Of course this is particularly true in industrialized countries like Japan and France, but it's also true in the developing world where small farms have trouble competing with cheap food imports from the US.

It's probably easier to think about how cost of living and quality of life are related by comparing two more familiar cities, say New York and Pittsburgh. In New York, to buy a 1 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn costs over $500,000. In Pittsburgh, you could buy two very large houses for that. In New York, groceries are generally more expensive, but eating out is a bit cheaper on average--unless you eat fast food, where Pittsburgh is cheaper. The bottom line of that is in New York a two income family bringing home $150,000 dollars does not feel rich. Where in Pittsburgh a single income family bringing home $75,000 is very comfortable.

So is a New Yorker lucky because he or she lives in a luxurious way? Maybe. There are very good reasons people pay the premium to live in New York and not Pittsburgh. But it's not so obvious.

The fact that they are ignorant doesn't excuse the fact that their life sucks by comparison. That just goes to show just how privileged we are for having more education.

So if I'm happy because I don't know that JohnDoe thinks I should be miserable then I am ignorant?

 

[JohnDoe98]

People always make incorrect blanket statements about Chinese salaries though. I doubt many people on this site have been to China, where the average meal can easily be had for the equivalent $1 at local restaurants. There are plenty of jobs in the US that make relatively the same, with lesser working conditions. A min-wage US worker is no more able to afford meals and housing and healthcare than a worker in China.

And how does the average chinese meal compare to the average american one? How does the housing of the min-wage US worker compare to the housing of the chinese worker? How many US min-wage workers are there compared to the number of Chinese living in poverty? As for healthcare, do you really think what if offered is comparable?

----------

Food is one of the places where these simplistic generalizations breaks down. The Western diet is pretty bad really.

As a result of choice. Don't ignore that.

It's probably easier to think about how cost of living and quality of life are related by comparing two more familiar cities, say New York and Pittsburgh. In New York, to buy a 1 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn costs over $500,000. In Pittsburgh, you could buy two very large houses for that. In New York, groceries are generally more expensive, but eating out is a bit cheaper on average--unless you eat fast food, where Pittsburgh is cheaper. The bottom line of that is in New York a two income family bringing home $150,000 dollars does not feel rich. Where in Pittsburgh a single income family bringing home $75,000 is very comfortable.

If someone can afford to live in the New York districts you are talking about and not feel rich, sadly they are living in a grossly distorted reality and would benefit from being disabused of their ignorance.

So is a New Yorker lucky because he or she lives in a luxurious way? Maybe. There are very good reasons people pay the premium to live in New York and not Pittsburgh. But it's not so obvious.

Yes it is, unless you insulated yourself from the rest of the world and live happily within a bubble.

So if I'm happy because I don't know that JohnDoe thinks I should be miserable then I am ignorant?

Is this a serious question?

 

[bushido]

i admire those people that can work in a factory all their life. a 4 weeks summer job has always been enough for me even though it makes you a fortune here in germany. i thought i was getting dumb after a while because you do always the same ^^

 

[jclardy]

Too bad 14 RMB won't even buy them a meal at McDonalds in China

The article states they make $14. That is in USD, or 88.2980 Chinese yuan. Big Mac in china is about 15 RMB.

So they can buy almost 6 big macs vs 3.5 in the US.

 

[the read]

Anytime I hear about the sacrifices some of these people make, just to earn a few bucks a day, it makes me realize how much I take for granted and that I live a very blessed life. It also makes me appreciate my iPad in a whole different way.

Actually makes me feel sad and guilty that I'm using an iPad right now. Then I feel really sick when you see the profit that Apple and other tech companies revenue.

I too feel lucky that opportunities have been available to me. The people queing for work in the video look tired and stressed, their best oportunity is to land work for $14 a day. That's hard to accept as humane.

 

[bawbac]

You don't really understand how things work. Apple does not pay any wages to Foxconn employees. Apple pays for products made. Foxconn decides how that money is distributed between (a) wages for the workers, (b) wages for upper management, and (c) profit for the owners. If Apple tells Foxconn they are willing to pay more for products, Foxconn will look at them funny and that extra money will first go into category (c), profit for the owners, then a little for (b) and finally maybe a touch for (a).

Even if Apple mandated some higher wages for the employees, that will still find its way back to category (c) and (b) (for example, rent at the dorms would immediately increase or there would be an expensive "application fee" at the time the worker initially takes the job). As big as Apple is, it isn't close to big enough to set minimum wage levels like a government can. You seem to want Apple to be able to do that, but it can't.

Did you not read my post or understand it?

If Apple really cares about providing the workers more monetary funds, they could ask FC to implement a profit sharing or bonus scheme, then if they implement it, Apple agrees to pay FC a bonus when certain criteria is met on a quarterly basis.

But we know Apple will not suggest such things because Apple likes deep pockets for their share holders and only care about the bottom line no matter how workers are paid or treated. They are the top slave labor enablers of the electronic industry.

----------

Trust me. most of these people working in Foxconn are having a way better life that most people in the states.

Facts please or is this an IMO post.

 

[nastebu]

And how does the average chinese meal compare to the average american one? How does the housing of the min-wage US worker compare to the housing of the chinese worker? How many US min-wage workers are there compared to the number of Chinese living in poverty? As for healthcare, do you really think what if offered is comparable?

You should probably leave health care out of it since it's guaranteed in China and not in the US.

As a result of choice. Don't ignore that.

"Choice" is another issue entirely. I don't think that the choice between McDonald's or Burger King is much of a choice. It's very possible that very few Chinese would consider the choices of food in the US superior to the choices of food in China.

If someone can afford to live in the New York districts you are talking about and not feel rich, sadly they are living in a grossly distorted reality and would benefit from being disabused of their ignorance.

Why? If that person is living in a one bedroom apartment and two people are working to support their lifestyle, why should the feel wealthy compared to the one-wage couple in Pittsburgh who has a huge house? I'd agree that they'd be fools to consider themselves poor, but rich? I don't understand why they should feel rich.

Another way to think about it is that the *average* selling price for a residential property in New York City is more than a million dollars. That means that $500,000 dollar apartment is less than half the average home price going.

The point of this is to point out how complicated it is to make judgements on quality of life based on income. Some places, like New York and globally the US are very expensive to live in. Some places are relatively cheap, like Pittsburgh and, globally, parts of China.

Is this a serious question?

The person in Ghana is happy. You say they are ignorant because they don't know they should not be happy. There's a problem in this logic.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Is it more shocking they only make 14 dollars a day or that 14 dollars a day is actually concidered a good wage for Asian factory workers?

No, not Asian... Chinese. Not all Asian factory workers make $14. Asia is a large and diverse continent. China is just the largest country in it.

Also the value of ones wages are relative to the cost of good and services in the respective domicled country... Or even state or part of state like in the U.S. $50k salary is livable in Cumberland, MD but not so much in Potomac, MD.

 

[Earendil]

I'll just leave this here.

I Was A Warehouse Wage Slave
"My brief, backbreaking, rage-inducing, low-paying, dildo-packing time inside the online-shipping machine."

 

[blewvelvet]

I'm so sure

Right...because militaries and governments never staged or generated fake scenes to debunk rumours that ended up being true in any propaganda films.

The Nazi's frequently made film of jews being treated well. It was all staged.

If you believe this..you are born yesterday!

 

[Fraaaa]

[...]Most of us are lucky enough to have a decent job because of a degree or an opportunity due to different circumstances and location.[...]

I'm not saying that they have equal opportunity like us, but Foxconn really doesn't look like a sweatshop.[...]

Alas, you're reasoning as if post-secondary education would be free for everyone. That's what we are fighting for up here but sadly, not so many people see that education as necessary.

No, I'm reasoning that they are in the same situation that my parents had in terms of education and in terms of opportunities, and this situation is nothing new and is not confined to China. Regulations shouldn't be Apple or whatnot responsibility by the Chinese Government.
The second point I was raising is that this is a stage of an economic growth for China and production is always the first step in this evolution. Eventually manual labor will decrease and will be shift elsewhere or turn to robotics due to the rapid technologic evolution that is happening. This happened in America, an in Italy and other developed country.
In Italy there was mostly factory labour and still they are enduring with it, however, has decrease over time, and lots of company had to move production abroad to contain the costs. Now, a person that have been working in a factory for 40 years like my parents if happen to lose the job will not have any other chance but find some other production job, which are decreasing every year. If they had a better qualification they could have a chance in something else.

In sum:
I'm not condoning underpaid labour, but is a Government responsibility to apply standards and regulations, not the clients.

I know that people have different opportunities according to their circumstances, and these work may have less then we have in our country, but that happens and have happened everywhere a country was developing.

Eventually, we will shift toward more services and less production, where production will be robotised.

 

[JohnDoe98]

You should probably leave health care out of it since it's guaranteed in China and not in the US.

Agreed that it should be left out, but not for the reasons you mention.

"Choice" is another issue entirely. I don't think that the choice between McDonald's or Burger King is much of a choice. It's very possible that very few Chinese would consider the choices of food in the US superior to the choices of food in China.

First, the choice isn't between McDs or BK. The choice is between eating whatever you want, anytime of the year, versus having to eat from a rather restricted range of goods that are only affordable when in season locally. Second, you say it's very possible that few Chinese would consider the choices of food in the US superior, but there are studies, and if you press me on it I can find them for you, that have indicated otherwise. What those studies revealed is that as Asians become more and more wealthy, their diets tend to become Westernized to greater extents. Granted, they will retain some of their cultural preferences, but the quality of what they eat typically diminishes. The studies were examining diseases that are linked to Western diets. The aim was to find out if those diseases were genetic problems isolated to Westerners or if the diseases resulted from nutritional habits. What those studies quickly found out was that the Asians will not only adopt the Western diets as their means increase, but the diseases they are vulnerable to will follow the diet they consume, ruling out the genetic hypothesis.

Why? If that person is living in a one bedroom apartment and two people are working to support their lifestyle, why should the feel wealthy compared to the one-wage couple in Pittsburgh who has a huge house? I'd agree that they'd be fools to consider themselves poor, but rich? I don't understand why they should feel rich.

Another way to think about it is that the *average* selling price for a residential property in New York City is more than a million dollars. That means that $500,000 dollar apartment is less than half the average home price going.

The point of this is to point out how complicated it is to make judgements on quality of life based on income. Some places, like New York and globally the US are very expensive to live in. Some places are relatively cheap, like Pittsburgh and, globally, parts of China.

Why do you think cities like New York and Paris are so expensive? Is your conjecture that this is the result of mere happenstance? Clearly so many people want to live in those cities, driving up the cost of living due to the overwhelming competition, for a reason. What do you suppose that reason is? Also, when you look at the demographics, the type of people living in those pricy New York districts tend to be a rather select type of people, with a very distinct culture (they have very peculiar educational pedigrees and socio-economic backgrounds as compared to the vast majority of other american cities).

The person in Ghana is happy. You say they are ignorant because they don't know they should not be happy. There's a problem in this logic.

No that's not what I said, but thanks for trying to twist my words. Go back and read what I said, you'll realize the problem in logic here is that you are dealing with a straw-man.

 

[BigZ243]

Anytime I hear about the sacrifices some of these people make, just to earn a few bucks a day, it makes me realize how much I take for granted and that I live a very blessed life. It also makes me appreciate my iPad in a whole different way.

I agree.