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Chinese Factory Shutdown May Affect Apple Notebook Supplies

Ping Guo said:
The labor cost is only one factor, and not as much as a lot of people think. The Japanese have high labor cost, yet they've managed to be extremely competitive building automobiles and computers.

Apple can still source some parts from Taiwan and Korea, and move assembly back to the states, and take advantage of robotics like the Japanese do. This would provide skilled jobs.

The increased labor costs would also be offset somewhat by cheaper shipping.
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You've just solved the US trade deficit and added a healthy chunk to Apple's margin, what are you going to do with your $1.4 million Nobel prize in economics winnings?
 
SilianRail said:
You've just solved the US trade deficit and added a healthy chunk to Apple's margin, what are you going to do with your $1.4 million Nobel prize in economics winnings?
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*Yawn* What's your contribution to the thread?

And if you think that would solve the US trade deficit, it's you who needs to learn something about economics. What it would do is bring some much-needed jobs back from overseas.
 
Exactly the same as what my Boss has said to me.
Labour costs are not the issue many seem to think they are in a well designed and organised factory.

If you have a machine turning out a few $100 or $1000 worth of parts a hour, then whether you pay the guy who is manning it, $2 or $20 a hour it's small fry put up against the value of the output/product that's being created.

Often the problem is in the US and UK workers have to often use machinery that's decades (even wartime) old machinery and then they are compared to a factory in the far east that's just cost a couple of billion to equip with the latest cutting edge machinery.
Then they start showing how much cheaper the far eastern company is in making the product.
 
Gemütlichkeit said:
I hope someday they can bring production to the states.

Made and Designed in California
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The only problem would be that as they are going to pay the minimum salary, nobody would like to work there. So, they'll hire illegal Mexicans. Then, Americans are going to complain that Mexicans steal their jobs.
 
SilianRail said:
You've just solved the US trade deficit and added a healthy chunk to Apple's margin, what are you going to do with your $1.4 million Nobel prize in economics winnings?
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Technically that's not a Nobel Prize. This comes from someone who knows.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Why can't the odor be identified?
 
Gemütlichkeit said:
I hope someday they can bring production to the states.

Made and Designed in California
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Sure they can. But then, we go back to no average person being able to own so much of technology, somewhere around 197x - early 198x. The standard of living of western civilization is based on cheap labor of what we consider symbols of our standard of living. Cars, gadgets, and so on. There aren't enough resources in the world to give everyone an iphone, a macbook pro and so on. We can only have them because most of the world doesn't, and is willing to produce it for us.
 
Piggie said:
Often the problem is in the US and UK workers have to often use machinery that's decades (even wartime) old machinery and then they are compared to a factory in the far east that's just cost a couple of billion to equip with the latest cutting edge machinery.
Then they start showing how much cheaper the far eastern company is in making the product.
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The United States is the largest manufacturer in the world producing $2.3 trillion in goods each year. I don't think Intel fabs and Boeing plants use Mickey Mouse equipment.
 
swingerofbirch said:
Unfortunate timing?

These are the factories we've read about where workers are constantly inhaling aluminum dust, getting sick, and even dying. The fact that authorities in China have shut it down tells you it's a pretty bad situation. What's unfortunate is that people are sick from factory work.

When the Foxconn factory exploded, there were reports that workers there too were inhaling aluminum dust and they found a lot of huge safety violations.

This factory is only finally getting attention because the smell was so bad it was bothering neighbors near the factory--imagine what it's like inside.

There is a precedent for this situation: late 19th century/early 20th century United States. It was a moral tragedy. And it was for the sake of greed. And saying the timing is unfortunate now because you are worried an unannounced, very slightly speed bumped MBP will be delayed is also greedy.

----------



I'm guessing this is sarcasm.
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Yah....which I suppose everyone who has ever purchased an apple product has an implicit role to play. :p

Seriously, I doubt any of us really cared 2 hoots or gave a 2nd thought about the workers' safety when we were purchasing our iphones, ipads or imacs. Why are you complaining about it now? :confused:
 
MacRumors said:
Taiwanese company Catcher Technology has had to temporarily close down a factory in eastern China due to complaints of a "strange odor" coming from the building...
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I smell dead people...

i%20see%20dead%20people.jpg
 
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I'm somewhat happy about this!

Only means my MacBook Pro is going to be the 'latest model' for a little bit longer. Just means I can sell it off to some clueless stranger on Craigslist / Gumtree.
 
lukarak said:
Sure they can. But then, we go back to no average person being able to own so much of technology, somewhere around 197x - early 198x. The standard of living of western civilization is based on cheap labor of what we consider symbols of our standard of living. Cars, gadgets, and so on. There aren't enough resources in the world to give everyone an iphone, a macbook pro and so on. We can only have them because most of the world doesn't, and is willing to produce it for us.
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Just some thoughts ...

The question is, do we need to own so much technology, and even more important resource-wise to replace it every year? There are enough resources, they are just not evenly distributed. More or less it's been like this for centuries.

I'd gladly pay 10.000+ for a computer that lasts for 20+ years (with new software), but I can't because no one sells something like this. Why is it that the only thing an average consumer cares about is price, and not quality?

There sure was/is a lot of advertisement/social engineering going on to create something like this:

MacsAreBetter\ said:
I'm somewhat happy about this!

Only means my MacBook Pro is going to be the 'latest model' for a little bit longer. Just means I can sell it off to some clueless stranger on Craigslist / Gumtree.
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lucas72 said:
LOOL

btw... what's that: http://store.apple.com/us/search?find=macbook+pro&mco=Nzc1MjMwNg#top-30 ?

Macbook Pro Memory Model ?!?! :confused::eek: I apologize for my English comprehension, but... can it means a Steve Jobs's commemorative model?
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It's more likely a couple of placeholders for the next models, which will feature increased base RAM - most likely 8GB. You can do something in someone's memory, but you wouldn't "this is a memory edition"; it'd be more like "commemorative edition".
 
I wonder if this is true or one of the analysts shorting Apple stock.

Remember all the wrong stories this year.

"earthquake stops motherboard shipments to Iphone/Ipad2" *wrong*
"Jonathan Ive is leaving Apple to move to UK" *wrong*
"Ipad2 is delayed" *wrong*
"FoxConn factory blows up. Will hinder iPad 2 shipments" *wrong*
"Android is crushing Apple since iPhone 4 is old" *wrong*

Each of these rumors drove down the Apple shares 10-15%.

If this is true:
I want Apple to have its own factories. 1)The competitors can't use the same factories. 2)Cheaper since there is no middleman that needs to make money.

The outsourcing craze is a way to pump shares short sight and loose in the long run. (Like AMD selling its fabs to Global Foundries. Gave them loads of money, know GloFo have extreme problems manufacture AMD chips. GloFo does not care. They can sell its wafers to other companies then AMD).
 
If this is true:
I want Apple to have its own factories. 1)The competitors can't use the same factories. 2)Cheaper since there is no middleman that needs to make money.
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It's not without problems of its own though. Apple will need to manage those factories, and I think that is an added layer of responsibility they do not relish.
 
Abazigal said:
Yah....which I suppose everyone who has ever purchased an apple product has an implicit role to play. :p

Seriously, I doubt any of us really cared 2 hoots or gave a 2nd thought about the workers' safety when we were purchasing our iphones, ipads or imacs. Why are you complaining about it now? :confused:
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Just as same as with any other product. Most of them are made in China. Or in case of clothes, in some even cheaper country, since China is too expensive to make t-shirts for example.

Mentioning apple in this context is just trolling.
 
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