Apple to Move Production of iPhone Batteries to Automated Lines

[bumblebritches5]

A few reasons. Two spring to mind as primary ones:

1. Lower Taxation in 'other countries'.

2. Cheaper labour and facility cost's.

Both of these on their own outweigh the reason [for Apple] to bring production to America, or any other countries where people expect [and need] to be paid a decent wage to live on.

In fact this move makes labour cost's even lower in the long run, having an automated service in the 'other countries'.

>No labor
>Cheaper labor

You don't have a clue what you're talking about, do you?

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At this point, it almost doesn't matter what country the manufacturing is in. There are going to be fewer and fewer jobs in that arena because more and more things are going to be able to be produced my machines. The buildings are in China now, but eventually technology that is related to 3d printers combined with robotics will start replacing all manufacturing, and it the energy costs will decide the most economical place to build them.

Eventually, with the labor use dropping in China, they will want to tax or regulate the factories to make the money back, and the factories will move elsewhere.

Except this has been happening for the last twenty yars, and we will continue to have at least some people eployed doing this stuff for a while to come, aka it's all ********.

it DOEs matter where it's built, and it would provide american jobs if they moved it over here.

 

[Oriental]

Me too. Some iPhone batches had the worst batteries I've ever seen in a mobile phone:

- 3GS and the swelling batteries - see my own shots at http://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/sets/72157633931601917/

- iPhone 5 and the batteries completely dying after half a year - same happened to me.

So much for "legendary" Apple "quality"...

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Seeing is believing... too many iPhone models / batches were plagued by substandard or downright cr@ppy batteries...

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"Form over functionality"

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6 hours' battery life with a less than 4-year-old battery? That isn't very good... for example, my 2007 Nokia N95 still delivers way better battery life with its original battery.

Yes, Nokia has always used far better-quality batteries than Apple. No wonder they don't swell / die on users after half a year / deliver 6 hours of life after 4 years.

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Well, given the cr@ppy batteries Apple uses (used in several batches), I certainly wouldn't think so. Nokia has always used far better ones.

Such an unbelievable troll post!

3GS swelling batteries. Wow, a tiny, irrelevant percentage of 3GS batteries 'swelled'. Exactly like the problem Samsung acknowledged with the Galaxy S4.

iPhone 5 batteries - your insinuation that they die after half a year. Hasn't happened to any of the HUNDREDS of people I am friends with who own iPhone 5's.

'Form over functionality' - well since iPhones generally top the battery life benchmarks, if you argue this then every other manufacturer is prioritising form MORE over functionality than Apple.

'6 hours' battery life with a less than 4-year-old battery? That isn't very good'

Well first of all he showed over 2 DAYS OF BATTERY, not 6 hours. And for a 4 year old battery it's VERY GOOD. 4 years can be over 1,000 cycles of charging which is A LOT and to still have longer battery life than even brand new Android phones get is frankly amazing.

I have an iPhone 4 and it lasts me over 3 days on a single charge, I couldn't be happier. People I know with iPhones generally find that the battery is far superior to alternative Android phones. You've either been particularly unlucky or you're trolling. Either way you're not representative of iPhone users and nor can you speak for their batteries in general.

 

[Arran]

Good. I don't trust humans.

Well, yeah. They take pictures of the new phone's innards and post them on the internet!

Welcome to "doubling down"!

 

[Menneisyys2]

Such an unbelievable troll post!

3GS swelling batteries. Wow, a tiny, irrelevant percentage of 3GS batteries 'swelled'. Exactly like the problem Samsung acknowledged with the Galaxy S4.

iPhone 5 batteries - your insinuation that they die after half a year. Hasn't happened to any of the HUNDREDS of people I am friends with who own iPhone 5's.

Both has happened to my iPhone 5 and to two 3GS devices at my company. Which is properly proved by my flickr shots. Case closed, no matter how you feel I've attacked your beloved, "we only produce high-quality stuff" Apple.

'6 hours' battery life with a less than 4-year-old battery? That isn't very good'

Well first of all he showed over 2 DAYS OF BATTERY, not 6 hours. And for a 4 year old battery it's VERY GOOD. 4 years can be over 1,000 cycles of charging which is A LOT and to still have longer battery life than even brand new Android phones get is frankly amazing.

If we aren't talking about talking time (where 6 hours would be spectacular after 4 years), 6 hours' plain standby time is nothing to write home about. My significantly older Nokia N95 has a much longer standby time with its 7-year-old battery.

I have an iPhone 4 and it lasts me over 3 days on a single charge, I couldn't be happier. People I know with iPhones generally find that the battery is far superior to alternative Android phones. You've either been particularly unlucky or you're trolling. Either way you're not representative of iPhone users and nor can you speak for their batteries in general.

Note: I'm not (and I have never) comparing iPhones to Android phones. I know how taxing the OS on those handsets may be. Nokia phones run (and has always run) Symbian and WP.

 

[mtneer]

If the iMac is made by a machine why isn't it made in america/country it is sold to?. Wouldn't that make it cheaper due to less shipping?

That's possible if one could find people (at the right pay) with the skills to run/ maintain/ develop the robotics. If Apple has to hire foreigners here to do those jobs, they may as well do it in their home countries for a fraction of the labor and regulatory burdens.

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Bingo...this obsession with thinness its getting us nowhere - keep the freaking thickness/size the same as the 4S and put it on 4.7 chasis and you will see a 12-20 hour talk time and standby in a week or more.

No much hope - you know they will claim the thinnest in the world for the iphone 6 - bummer.

But that gets in the way of one of the impetus for an (early) upgrade or battery replacement revenue. If you watch the iPhone forums, there is a post about battery life degradation almost every other day. So, if the battery life was rated at 8 hours to begin with and it loses 20% over heavy use in a year, it may last only 6 hours, which is not enough to get through a whole work day - user will have to upgrade or pay up for a new battery.

A battery rated at 20 hours to begin with may only last 16 hours after heavy use in a year, which provides the user no impetus to upgrade or extract post-sales revenue for the same hardware.

 

[AppleMark]

>No labor
>Cheaper labor

You don't have a clue what you're talking about, do you?

Enlighten me with your great wisdom? Or are you only able to 'Troll post' illegible responses which offer no clarity?

Wisdom that answers the OP's question I responded to, which was essentially why Apple would not bring 'Home' production to the USA.

It would be extremely naive to assume that an automated facility [anywhere] would not require human staff to run and maintain it. Taking this cost into account, on top of maintenance cost's, business cost and taxes, they are all cheaper in China than in America.

Apple is a corporation who's primary aim is to make money for itself and it's shareholders. Any savings made in an automated facility would not be translated to moving that facility to the USA, for the reasons I made clear in this and my original post.

What is also clear, is that it is you who has no clue what they are talking about. It is also clear that you have no idea how business works in the real world.

I bet you cannot wait until Friday for your boss to pay your wages....?

 

[bumblebritches5]

Enlighten me with your great wisdom? Or are you only able to 'Troll post' illegible responses which offer no clarity?

Wisdom that answers the OP's question I responded to, which was essentially why Apple would not bring 'Home' production to the USA.

It would be extremely naive to assume that an automated facility [anywhere] would not require human staff to run and maintain it. Taking this cost into account, on top of maintenance cost's, business cost and taxes, they are all cheaper in China than in America.

Apple is a corporation who's primary aim is to make money for itself and it's shareholders. Any savings made in an automated facility would not be translated to moving that facility to the USA, for the reasons I made clear in this and my original post.

What is also clear, is that it is you who has no clue what they are talking about. It is also clear that you have no idea how business works in the real world.

I bet you cannot wait until Friday for your boss to pay your wages....?

lol at "illegible" my point is pretty obvious, but if you insist on my rephrasing it so you can understand, I guess I could, also nice grammar.

the only reasonable reason apple wouldn't bring it back here is due to the cost of moving production back, wages are negligible at worst.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Yup, not all 3GS devices had / have deficient batteries. As you can also make out my shot at http://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/8953009896/in/set-72157633931601917/lightbox/ , 3GS batteries with a S/N starting with AE/AE9/AE94/AE941/AE9414/AE94149 etc. are affected. (I don't know how many of them. The S/N of the two affected 3GS devices I've serviced differed by 593-585 = 8. These two 3GS phones were purchased in late 2009 by my employer at the same time for dev purposes.) On the other hand, batteries starting with YW92...., purchased by me right on the first dawn of the European premiere (31/07/2009) shows no swelling (the battery on the left).

EDIT: nevertheless, the Web is full of other 3GS battery swelling images / reports, not only in the AE94149xxxx serial number region. That is, this problem wasn't just a problem of, at best, a batch consisting of 8 devices.

If its batches then its possible to get a bad battery no matter what an isnt necessarily the norm for most people.

 

[omnimoeish]

Here's a temporary solution: make the phone a millimeter or two thicker so that you can fit a bigger battery in there. I don't see why this isn't a priority.

This. The battery situation in iPhones is horrendous. Unless you are the weakest human being on the planet, I cannot fathom anyone with a brain that would sacrifice their battery life of their most important communication device and link to the outside world just to make the phone imperceptably lighter and thinner. The user replaceable battery in my Galaxy S4 means I just carry an extra battery around in my backpack (or pocket or whatever) on those days when I know I'm going to be out all day. It's saved my butt a few times. It's probably not even something you realize you're doing but you just kind of know in the back of your mind how much you can use your phone each day so you self ration. I don't have to do that. Apple has compromised way too much on battery life in my mind. I actually use my phone for games a lot sometimes, and a lot of times I use my phone all morning and then I start my shift at work at 1pm and don't get off until 10pm and I'm using my phone a lot and an iPhone's battery life would be terrible.

The other thing is the 5" screen size is like a totally different world for web browsing and gaming, but that horse has been beaten to hot glue.

The other nice thing about the second battery I have is that it means I can give my main battery breaks and keep it's longevity. And if I ever need another one, it's only $10 for a Samsung OEM battery on Amazon.

 

[Menneisyys2]

If its batches then its possible to get a bad battery no matter what an isnt necessarily the norm for most people.

I haven't debated that. I just stated the QA of Apple is, to put it mildly, far from excellent, which have resulted in some horrendous experience (see the 3GS images) I haven't experienced with other manufacturers.

 

[Tech198]

We'll,.....batteries are a start anyway

Maybe this wlll reduce the repair/replace a tad.

 

[AppleMark]

lol at "illegible" my point is pretty obvious, but if you insist on my rephrasing it so you can understand, I guess I could, also nice grammar.

the only reasonable reason apple wouldn't bring it back here is due to the cost of moving production back, wages are negligible at worst.

You have only unwittingly agreed with my point at least in part, you are just unable to process this fact. Unlike you I was clear in my post.. Shame..

Perhaps if you bothered to read and understand rather than look for typo's, you may have had a chance.

The cost's of doing business in the US instead of China is huge, including wages. Moving production is not just setting up an automated factory in the US, it is much more than that. And yes, the wages will be a large factor, along with all the health care and tax management that goes with it.

It is clear that you do not understand anything about running a business, or it's 'real-world' logistics... Never mind...

Like I said, you will be collecting your wages from your boss on Friday... and I will be paying my staff. LOL

 

[TMay]

No one forces you to do it. I, being a dev, have a large amounts of iPads and iPhones (basically, most iPhone / iPad / iPt models) and, being a mobility pro, also routinely service iPhones (exchanging batteries etc.) at work for my workmates (several hundred people). So I've seen / serviced a lot more iDevices than you, I'm afraid.

Neither do you need to believe the people stating the same, particularly WRT the swelling 3GS and dying iPhone 5 batteries, in this very forum. No one forces you. I let you love your Apple.

Yes, you certainly have, but that's still anecdotal evidence. Perhaps your N95 standard is less that what you portray; again, anecdotal evidence:

http://discussions.nokia.com/t5/Nse...ble-solution-to-poor-battery-life/td-p/129229

and WRT battery swelling:

http://sites.uci.edu/lifepo4battery/2011/05/19/swollen-lithium-batteries-swell-costs/

It's not just Apple, it's all manufacturers, though perhaps Apple is now in a position to at least take labor quality issues out of the equation.

 

[bumblebritches5]

You have only unwittingly agreed with my point at least in part, you are just unable to process this fact. Unlike you I was clear in my post.. Shame..

Perhaps if you bothered to read and understand rather than look for typo's, you may have had a chance.

The cost's of doing business in the US instead of China is huge, including wages. Moving production is not just setting up an automated factory in the US, it is much more than that. And yes, the wages will be a large factor, along with all the health care and tax management that goes with it.

It is clear that you do not understand anything about running a business, or it's 'real-world' logistics... Never mind...

Like I said, you will be collecting your wages from your boss on Friday... and I will be paying my staff. LOL

No one cares old man.