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Chinese Factory Shutdown May Affect Apple Notebook Supplies

hobo.hopkins said:
Everyone would love more American factories and jobs.
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Not everyone would love more American factories and jobs. Certainly not the executives who sent them thousands of miles away in the first place. Or the stockholders who are benefiting from cheaper labor elsewhere. Or the oil companies who benefit from shipping everything from far flung suppliers to distant consumers several thousand miles away. We haven't figured out how to stop the market from trashing our economy. We've only figured out how to slow it down. From the perspective of the American worker the Great Recession is not much different than the Great Depression except that it's in slow motion. The upside is that the severity of the crash has been lessened somewhat. The downside is that it is likely to take far longer to recover from it. And the blatant war profiteering that brought America to the top of the food chain in the past won't be coming to the rescue this time. We've long since pissed away most of our manufacturing facilities and technology so that plum will be going to Asia along with most of our remaining money.
 
There is an odd synergy between Chinese trolls and what seem to be tea baggers. Both hate unions, worker's rights, environmental controls and the middle class and are in favor of big untaxed and unregulated corporations.
 
ed724 said:
So, because a US company is having it's products manufactured in China, and the they don't have stringent safety protocols in place (by their choice) Apple should tell them to take a hike ? I suppose there's some merit to that argument, but in the real world, we know that's not going to happen. Of course people could just stop buying Apple products too. We know that's not going to happen. Or, the Chinese factories could revamp, raise the cost of the supplies to Apple, Apple raises the price of its products, sales go down, then everybody get laid off. Of course Apple could take some it's profits and offer to update the factory, but ultimately would have no 'real' control of the process and basically be throwing money down the drain. So, as long as the demand exists, and people want work due to the demand, and there's huge profits to be made. It's not going to change. Ultimately IMO, the factory making products is solely responsible. It's up to it's owner/operators to do the right thing. If the government over there has to get involved, so be it. Saying it's "Greed" is ridiculous. It's more like "human nature". You might, just might find a handful of people that when having the opportunity to become wealthy, would consider all the ramifications and possibly turn that opportunity down.
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Unfortunately, that's too true. :(


daxomni said:
Not everyone would love more American factories and jobs. Certainly not the executives who sent them thousands of miles away in the first place. Or the stockholders who are benefiting from cheaper labor elsewhere. Or the oil companies who benefit from shipping everything from far flung suppliers to distant consumers several thousand miles away. We haven't figured out how to stop the market from trashing our economy. We've only figured out how to slow it down. From the perspective of the American worker the Great Recession is not much different than the Great Depression except that it's in slow motion. The upside is that the severity of the crash has been lessened somewhat. The downside is that it is likely to take far longer to recover from it. And the blatant war profiteering that brought America to the top of the food chain in the past won't be coming to the rescue this time. We've long since pissed away most of our manufacturing facilities and technology so that plum will be going to Asia along with most of our remaining money.
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Also true. While there may aspects of having a factory in the US (more jobs for the US workers), you brought a big negative.

For those people who dislike unions because they try to raise wages, that's a bit of a two-edged sword. While higher wages increase the cost of a product/service, those higher wages also mean those workers can also afford more stuff.
 
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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The links:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/ME_17_2_33_MBP?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY
http://store.apple.com/us/product/ME_17_2_4_MBP_PREV?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY

describe obviously:
A 2.33 GHz 17" MBP (2.2 GHz in Oct. 2011)
A 2.40 GHz 17" MBP (2.3 GHz in Oct. 2011)

And Apple says:
"Ships: Coming in November"
 
Gemütlichkeit said:
I hope someday they can bring production to the states.

Made and Designed in California
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blunti said:
if they do, the price of the computers will increase a lot.
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...and then you look at your AMD Phenom II chips. Made in Germany, assembled in Malaysia. Now, you tell me that Germany is cheaper to produce in than in the United States? I don't think so. AMD CPUs are cheaper than comparable Intels. Also: ABB Robotics produces in Germany. So, it is even cheap to automize and get service if things break.

I live and work in the United States. I know I make now less with a BS than working as a Student Worker in Germany. Now, if you argue with production costs, you are wrong because production costs depend on productivity and that is still higher in USA and EU. :)
 
Thunderhawks said:
The "make it in America" is a simplified mantra and ignores the fact that we live in global markets.

Since everything is driven by money, USA government at all levels , especially state, needs to change it's business unfriendly tax structure.

That is only the beginning.

The amount of labor the assembly needs (even with robotics) is not available in the US, which is why we have lots of foreign workers doing simple jobs.
Using robotics is a simple job and thus would not be highly paid.

Also, as long as you can get paid unemployment and welfare money that is higher or close to minimum wage why work.

Add to that the dumbing down of America in education (We lower the bar until everybody passes) and you have an environment where Make it in USA is an adventure!

Why would Apple want the headache of running a factory with all it's regulations and government interference.

So much easier to just order from Foxconn etc.

Consumers won't pay extra for Made in USA!
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It's government "interference" that guarantees fair working wages and safe conditions, not to mention protecting the environment.

Don't blame it on consumers - plenty would, and do, if given the chance. Corporations who pay no taxes and get huge incentives while offshoring their labor and money would be the likely culprits.

I hear a lot of excuses and whinging about deregulation, yet we're far more deregulated now than when we were a manufacturing superpower. Germany and Japan, the two most technologically advanced countries, manage to do pretty well with high labor costs, and pesky government interference protecting workers and the environment.

Don't think there isn't a hidden cost to doing business in China either. Even Foxconn is considering moving at least part of their operations back to Taiwan and using more robotics as I mentioned. The Pearl River Delta manufacturing sector is facing a labor shortage, and has been for several years.
 
kiljoy616 said:
Not sure now, but there was something about Steve and he did not like when the workers where not looked after. I Just don't remember where I read it.
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Apple issues a report about every year. A contract with one company painting some parts for I don't know what Apple device was cancelled after employees developed health problems. A major thing is that Apple doesn't like it at all if agents charge employees money to find them a job; last year about $3.4 million dollars were refunded to employees. Another company lost a contract because of all cases of under 16-year olds employed, two thirds happened at the some company.
 
Apple already updated MacBook Pros with Bluetooth 4.0

It seems that Apple already quietly updated the current line-up of MacBook Pros to feature Bluetooth 4.0 technology! It seems so that iPhone 4S users can benefit.

The first ever to report on this with screenshots: Baum Design - Apple Quietly Updates MacBook Pro’s with Bluetooth 4 on October 18th, 2011.

Can this be? So perhaps the new Pros will only have processor improvements, and perhaps RAM/HDD/SSD increases? (As Lion seems to struggle with even 4GB.)

It would be nice to see SSD become a standard across the whole line.
 
Unobtrusive said:
It seems that Apple already quietly updated the current line-up of MacBook Pros to feature Bluetooth 4.0 technology! It seems so that iPhone 4S users can benefit.

The first ever to report on this with screenshots: Baum Design - Apple Quietly Updates MacBook Pro’s with Bluetooth 4 on October 18th, 2011.

Can this be? So perhaps the new Pros will only have processor improvements, and perhaps RAM/HDD/SSD increases? (As Lion seems to struggle with even 4GB.)

It would be nice to see SSD become a standard across the whole line.
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That's the Bluetooth software version. Read the only comment on that page.
 
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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Which is a ridiculous conclusion given that over 62% (which is growing each quarter to the point that less than 20% of sales will be from the US market) of sales come from markets outside the United States - the solution isn't rock bottom wages but explaining why employers have to pay for the healthcare and superannuation of employees when in most other countries employees pay taxes to receive such services in the form of public services. There is a reason why the US is so massively uncompetitive but too bad government-o-phobia seems to be the in thing these days in the US.
 
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