While the secrecy is a bit absurd, to be fair the original iPhone did change the world as we know it. It radically altered technology, enabled hundreds of thousands of small businesses all over the world to spring up, and became the platform that launched major companies and products that dominate the world today (for better or worse) like Instagram, TikTok, Uber, and more.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple's Secrecy Standards Complicate iPhone 14 Production in India
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I don't know where you're getting your math from, but I promise you it isn't correct.
Haha!
I wonder if that might be the way to get people to show up for work at the Spaceship?
Very smart the way China's been acting like an idiot lately.....
If thats the case then, stick with China or choose another region or make them bloody wait one year after the product is successfully launched before you start manufacturing it there. They can then unseal and declare all they want. You are not gonna tell me how I launch my products. You bet there are a bunch YouTube vipers there looking to create sensation.
I think it will be a lot more then 20% but that is only half the story.
You need a lot more than just people willing to do the repetitive work.
The supply chain to manufacture at that scale is non-existent in the US and would take more then a decade to rebuild leading to not only increase in assembly cost but increase in cost of alll your components that you use as well.
That is incorrect.
Foxconn produced iPhones in Brazil starting in 2011: https://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/2...ilian-made-iphone-4-but-pricing-remains-high/
well since iphones are selling at 700 to 1000 depending on the model.....that 30% seems like not thing. Plus it might put one's mind at ease knowing slave labor was not used to make the phone
Cor blimey! And I thought we had awful labor laws in the US.😖 Would the workers be forced to live dorms, away from the general population as well? Paid in company scripts? Buncha soulless suits running the joint.🤬 If I were CEO of Foxconn, I would have immediately canned the suit who suggested this, execute his family, raze his mansion, salt his land.
St. Peter don't chu call me 'cause I can't go. I owe my soul to der company sto'.
In other words, how much bribe money will Apple have to spend every year to have Customs look the other way.😏
The major problem isn't the price hike, it's that the US simply doesn't have the infrastructure at this point to support an operation like Apple's iPhone manufacturing. They've got the equivalent of a large city dedicated entirely to iPhone production. Literally hundreds of thousands of workers all in the same city, all working for the same company. Not to mention the hundreds of smaller companies (and all their employees) feeding fresh parts/subassemblies in every day.
A quick search suggests Apple made 240 million iPhones in 2021. If you figure a 5-day work week (typical in the US), that would be about 900 thousand brand new iPhones having to roll off the assembly line every weekday - 900k today, another 900k the tomorrow, and the next day, and the next... And, all that work requires people doing skilled detail manual work to very high tolerances, sitting at a workbench for 8 hours a day.
The US doesn't have hundreds of thousands of people willing and able to do that kind of work all in the same place at this point. So, you'd have to pick a county somewhere and turn it into Apple County, and build the factories (and all the infrastructure/logistics for all the materials/subassemblies coming in and all the boxes/pallets of phones going out, and all the roads/freeways, and probably a large airport), and then get tens/hundreds of thousands of workers to move there... and build houses/apartments for these tens/hundreds of thousands of workers. And all the stores and restaurants and gas stations and all the other support infrastructure that those tens/hundreds of thousands of workers will need and expect. (Yes, there are plenty of places where you might find thousands of people willing to do the work - not all of them will be capable of doing it, and still, "thousands" is a drop in the bucket compared to what's needed - it'd take practically building up a new dedicated city.)
I suspect that when Apple finally does move manufacturing back to the US in large scale, it won't resemble the manufacturing they're doing in China - it'll be highly automated - tons of very advanced robots (that can do the work 24/7 with very fine tolerances, without ever losing focus or making a mistake), with a much smaller number of human employees to watch over the machines, keeping them running and monitoring quality. It won't be the "100k new American jobs!" that one contingent expects (the reason some are arguing for the move), and it will also raise prices substantially, because everything is more expensive here.
Neither one of these approaches will/can happen soon. I do hope Apple is very actively working on something in this regard. The whole world would be safer to be less beholden to China for manufacturing.
I'd almost argue you could utilize three shifts for a 24/7 manufacturing operation. 300,000 per shift. I'm sure the plants could offer shifts on Saturday and Sunday too.
If you wave enough money in people's face, they'll do it. Many would gladly make $30 an hour with iPhones, than to work behind a hot stove at McDonalds making $16.50.
Like you, I did figure a large portion would be automated manufacturing, so that negates the need for huge infrastructure changes. Still, we need more manufacturing jobs in this country and less in China. People need to stop looking at fast food jobs as their sole source of income.
Three shifts of 300,000 - thats 900,000 workers living in one city, all working for the same company. Easily a few hundred thousand more to keep that city running. It’s basically building a brand new, very densely populated, city of a million people. And no area has a million qualified people to spare, so you’ll be moving in new people from all over the country.
Yes, it is possible, but it’s a positively enormous undertaking.
Another angle to consider: when Apple announces their new Apple County plan for the US, with all iPhone manufacturing to move out of China three years hence (because it’s going to take 3-4 years to build this all out, and hire everybody and move everybody there, and train everybody, and get the production lines set up and working 100% properly)… how do you think China is going to react to this news, and how do you think that 3-4 years of transition is going to go for Apple, while they still have to deal with the Chinese government to keep their factories running?
I won’t buy any Apple devices that are made in India.I don’t pay premium for devices that are made in India so Apple can maximise their profit.
I fully agree that the barrier here is the integrated supply chain and access to labor.
But don't forget that Apple is apparently supposed to support this public works project by cutting their profit margins because communism is bad.
And the robot made phones better be human repairable!
So, do you think India is going to pay $200 more to bring good paying jobs to the US? That's the asymmetry you're looking at here: the US is willing to pay $200 less to buy a phone made in India, but are Indians willing (and able) to pay $200 to buy a phone made in the US?
Also, you realize that more competition for workers will only raise wages (and prices) at fast food companies that much faster, right? Labor is a market, also governed by supply and demand.
What a riot you'll be in the apple store.
You know there won't be a way to ask "where was it made", that won't be deeply suspicious at minimum.