Japanese Earthquake Leading to Shortages of iPod Batteries

[hobo.hopkins]

Thousands of people are dying in Japan and all you idiots care about is iPod Touch batteries? That's kind of... selfish.

How dare people think of themselves in any way when something bad has occurred in the world. People in Darfur have been dying for quite some time now and I haven't thought of myself or my interests once since conflicts began. That's what a good person does.

Do you see how ridiculous you're being? There is no reason a person can't be concerned with supply shortages AND the Japanese people. They aren't mutually exclusive. Moreover, if you follow your flawed logic then no one could ever do anything for themselves. Horrific events happen everyday worldwide; tragedies can't stop us from living.

 

[AppleAmerican]

Missing the picture

Most people here are missing the big picture. I'm pretty old and have witnessed the changes in the tech sector. Back in '01 a lot of laptops were made or at least assembled in the USA, and they were quality products, but with cheap foreign labor most global companies could not resist the couple of percent they could add to their profit margins by moving overseas. The company I worked for made laptops for a major name, but they closed the plant here to save between 3.00 and 6.00 dollars per unit, a very small percentage of the overall value. A company like Apple could easily, make and assemble products here, the profit margin on an iPhone is around 60%, but if they did that then there profit margin would only be 50%, corporate and political greed. There are companies here, that still compete, an example, American Apparel, they manufacture clothing here competitively in a huge operation in California with good paying jobs and great quality. There are many others, it is all about balancing automation with traditional production, but it's impossible for anyone to compete with slave wages from companies like Foxconn.

 

[Rot'nApple]

It would be something if the brains at Apple could find a way to utilize and harness that high level of radiated water Japan has since trying to cool down the reactor cores and create some kind of supercharged liquid powered battery with a runtime describe in half-life versus 40 hours music and 7 hours video that the iPod Touch currently has...

Japan get's rid of that juiced water and Apple's iPod Touch gets some high energy liquid juiced batteries. Of course, there's the issue of health... But Ives can redesign it using lead encasement instead of aluminum pronounced, Al - U - Men - Yum...

Besides, by the time your doctor tells you of any health issues, you're deaf anyway form iPod earbud listening and you wouldn't hear the bad news.
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[johnqh]

Most people here are missing the big picture. I'm pretty old and have witnessed the changes in the tech sector. Back in '01 a lot of laptops were made or at least assembled in the USA, and they were quality products, but with cheap foreign labor most global companies could not resist the couple of percent they could add to their profit margins by moving overseas. The company I worked for made laptops for a major name, but they closed the plant here to save between 3.00 and 6.00 dollars per unit, a very small percentage of the overall value. A company like Apple could easily, make and assemble products here, the profit margin on an iPhone is around 60%, but if they did that then there profit margin would only be 50%, corporate and political greed. There are companies here, that still compete, an example, American Apparel, they manufacture clothing here competitively in a huge operation in California with good paying jobs and great quality. There are many others, it is all about balancing automation with traditional production, but it's impossible for anyone to compete with slave wages from companies like Foxconn.

The cost for final assembly is minor.

For example, the cost to make an iPhone may be 200 dollars. It probably costs $1 for the final assembly (or by your calculation, $7 if the assembly is done in US). However, if you manufacture all the parts in US, it will cost $1400.

 

[fxtech]

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A wise person shops with an open mind. You seem to have closed yours and thus send all your dollars over seas. Sad really.

I thought having a closed mind was a prerequisite for being a member here.

 

[hobo.hopkins]

A company like Apple could easily, make and assemble products here, the profit margin on an iPhone is around 60%, but if they did that then there profit margin would only be 50%, corporate and political greed.

Remind me of why a company isn't entitled to make as much money as possible? Apple, along with most any company, could theoretically absorb the increased costs and thus make less money. The question is why would they do that?

 

[iScott428]

Do you two have any hard data to suggest this is actually true in this case? Considering this company is planning to expand to the US and China, what evidence do you have suggest that its dangerous?

I am sure I could find some, but really you do not believe that battery production has some nasty byproducts? For instance it does more environmental damage to make Hybrid car batteries and get them into the vehicle than the car would ever save on energy usage through its life.

 

[AppleAmerican]

The cost for final assembly is minor.

For example, the cost to make an iPhone may be 200 dollars. It probably costs $1 for the final assembly (or by your calculation, $7 if the assembly is done in US). However, if you manufacture all the parts in US, it will cost $1400.

A major portion of these components were American made. In 2000, American EXPORTED more high tech components than it imported. Here is the .gov source. How did you come up with $1400, my figures are fact based. Assembly is certainly more than $1 per unit. Typically assembly is a large portion of manufacturing costs. We competed and still can today.

 

[LeoNobilis]

Idiots

Those idiots must stop investing heavily in the asian markets. They are essentially selling their technology to asians, while also squandering immense financial resources on them.
One day they'll come to regret it as much as we did when we sent our best intellectual resources (read: Tesla, Einstein, Ives etc.) to the rednecks. We effectively made the inhabitants of the Wild West a deadly vermin (they used to be an obnoxious vermin). Now, The United States of The Wild West are doing what we once did (on purpose, unlike us). That will yield quite bitter results.
Of course, Abdulfattah Jandali Jr. and his likes don't care: pecuniam non olet.

 

[mcmlxix]

No, "best wishes" for our Japanese friends.

"Prayers" to the flying spaghetti monster are a waste of time - put the people of Japan into your thoughts, don't involve some ficticious deity.

Why couldn’t you let it slide? Assuming you don’t like people “imposing” their beliefs on you, why would you impose yours on others? I think there’s a word for that.

 

[Rot'nApple]

Thousands of people are dying in Japan and all you idiots care about is iPod Touch batteries? That's kind of... selfish.

Umm, sadly, tens of thousands of people have already died from the natural disaster alone (earthquake/tsunami) and Nuclear Power or anything "man-made" had nothing to do with it... However, the secondary hit Japan is going to take from their Nuclear problem remains to be seen.

What really is selfish is these so called environmentalists that decry oil drilling as bad for the earth and a pollutant in so many ways, that they and other activists made it EVIL to even think it and some politicians make fun of it, but yet the world's economies depend on fossil fuels in so many ways. While it may be true of oil's pollutant value, there is no mistaking that you can go in and clean up most oil spills without a geiger counter and not worry about radiation poisoning and the people would have oil to heat their homes and gas to drive their cars. Something those in the hard struck areas of Japan currently don't have. Let us not forget countless other products that have oil as a by-product in it's formation, such as... Let alone iPod batteries.

Wonder how the fine folks at Chernobyl are doing? Anyone here moving there soon? I'd bet you'd have better luck in Prince William Sound in Alaska.

Thank you environmentalist!
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[JAT]

How dare people think of themselves in any way when something bad has occurred in the world. People in Darfur have been dying for quite some time now and I haven't thought of myself or my interests once since conflicts began. That's what a good person does.

Do you see how ridiculous you're being? There is no reason a person can't be concerned with supply shortages AND the Japanese people. They aren't mutually exclusive. Moreover, if you follow your flawed logic then no one could ever do anything for themselves. Horrific events happen everyday worldwide; tragedies can't stop us from living.

No, I agree. Personally, I've stopped eating until Japan is 100% safe!!

 

[ohbrilliance]

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I'd say the bottleneck is the port and not the chemical manufacturer. As for bringing such manufacturing to the US, these are very obscure components in a deep supply chain, fulfilled by specialist industries. Apple would have to fulfill the operation of dozens if not hundreds of these companies in order to bring manufacturing home. Not really feasible.

 

[fxtech]

Why couldn’t you let it slide? Assuming you don’t like people “imposing” their beliefs on you, why would you impose yours on others? I think there’s a word for that.

Well considering less than 15% of Japanese are religious at all, you have to wonder who benefits from the prayers. Just the 15% who believe in that stuff? All of them? The person doing the praying? Things that make you go "hmmmm".

 

[Genetheninja]

Quote:
Originally Posted by iliketyla
Yeah you bring up a good point. I can't imagine assembling iPods is the most engaging activity ever, and most Americans would probably scoff at the kind of labor they seem to think is below them.

Kind of similar to when they raise an uproar about illegal immigrants taking all the jobs away, when they wouldn't be caught dead doing the kind of work some immigrants do.

At 10% unemployment, I don't know many people who would scoff at a job these days.

And, it isn't that illegal immigrants do jobs that people "wouldn't be caught dead doing" -- it's that they do jobs that people wouldn't be caught dead doing for below minimum wage. There are plenty of Americans who would pick fruit or clean buildings for a fair wage -- they just don't get the opportunity because an immigrant will do the job for cash at poverty wages.

Hammer, meet nail head. I'm an American, and unfortunately I must agree with iliketyla's assessment. There is this incredible sense of entitlement that has pervaded American culture. So many people want at least $20 per hour, but [insert deity or lack of one here] forbid they should lift more than two pounds.

Enter the illegal immigrants, who find the pay good enough to live on, not to mention the location, location, location. Hmm... $5 an hour harvesting lettuce heads for hours on end, or dodging drug-cartel bullets in Ciudad Juarez day and night. Not too tough a decision for me, and IMHO one worth the risk of getting caught by US border police.

I'm sorry but that my friend is bull $#hit. Not every migrant worker lives on the border. Here in Michigan our economy thrives on legals and illegals from Mexico picking blueberries and it's not by the hour. You get paid based on how much you pick. I did it when I was a kid for extra money and I'm a white American. You can make good money if you're fast but if you're lazy and slow you're not going to make much. It's not slave wages. The harder you work the more you make. A lot of those immagrants drive sport cars. I see a lot of people out there sitting on their A$$ getting their "check" from unemployment when they could be out there getting their hands dirty and making some money.
You should watch the movie "A day without a Mexican".
The fact is that if every migrant worker was deported our economy would completely collapse overnight because a lot of it depends on agriculture.
Another fact is that you see a lot of whites working at American Eagle and Abercrombie but how many work out in the fields? At least a few days a week while they look for another job??

 

[infidel69]

Are you willing to pay more for your Mac gadgets so they can be made here?

You're god damn right I am and not just for Mac gadgets either.

 

[marksman]

God hates us listening to music.

 

[japanime]

Highly debatable. More than likely working conditions would be far superior to what they are in China or Japan, and everyone knows happy employees are good employees.

Obviously you know absolutely nothing about Japan. Most employees are very well paid here, and are by in large happy with their jobs. Even those who work part-time in fast-food restaurants. How does $12 an hour to work the evening shift at a McDonald's sound to you?

 

[iliketyla]

Obviously you know absolutely nothing about Japan. Most employees are very well paid here, and are by in large happy with their jobs. Even those who work part-time in fast-food restaurants. How does $12 an hour to work the evening shift at a McDonald's sound to you?

Sounds very subjective when you give no cost of living comparisons.

 

[idunn]

Other than Iwaki

Look at a map and you'll see that Iwaki is near the east coast of Japan, but a short distance south of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. The town of Fukushima is well inland, actually northwest of the nuclear plant on the coast. Unless radiation levels decline the town of Fukushima will be uninhabitable, with current radiation levels well beyond that safe in a year. Iwaki is far closer to this plant, and whether their infrastructure damaged or not, almost certainly in a no-go zone for many decades to come.

Recent reports have a full meltdown in reactor #2 at the Fukushima plant, with melted fuel rods having likely melted through the stainless steel containment dome, and pouring as lava onto the concrete floor below. Bad news, in other words.

Kureha surely is scrambling for alternative manufacturing facilities. But that likely will take some time. Bottom Line: look for shortages in lithium-ion batteries in the short term.

 

[japanime]

Sounds very subjective when you give no cost of living comparisons.

The cost of living in Japan is very comparable to that of the United States. VERY. And I speak from experience, having lived both in rural and metro America as well as rural and metro Japan.

And you are the one who brought up "happy" employees. How do you objectively measure "happiness"?

 

[iliketyla]

The cost of living in Japan is very comparable to that of the United States. VERY. And I speak from experience, having lived both in rural and metro America as well as rural and metro Japan.

And you are the one who brought up "happy" employees. How do you objectively measure "happiness"?

I would ask the same question of you when you say that most Japanese are by in large happy with their jobs. Have you gone around and surveyed thousands of Japanese people who gave that response?

Saying happy employees are good employees is an idiom, like a penny saved is a penny earned.

 

[Vegasman]

Ah... dude... yes they have had suicides there... 11 attempts in 5 months out of 300,000 employees.

You do realize this is lower than the US actual suicide rate of 11 per-100K per-year.

Sorry... but I hate it when people and the press use "drama" to make a point and in reality... the Chinese workers at Foxconn are no different than your average US citizen.

And I think Foxconn actually had around 800,000 employees at the time, 300,000 of which were at one factory.

 

[SiPat]

To paraphrase all those advocating that Apple (10% market share) should licence OS X:

It is about time Kureha (70% share) licences it's technology to produce that whatyamacallit chemical for batteries.

 

[tbrinkma]

The plant with mass rates of suicide is in China.

Yep, the plant with the 'mass rates of suicide' (which are lower than both the national rate, and the rate in areas similar to that plant), is in China. (It's amazing how memes stick around and get repeated in spite of the fact that they aren't supported by any data.)