Japanese Earthquake Leading to Shortages of iPod Batteries

[whiteblooder]

Reply threda

to weep too much for a company that chooses to do business overseas isntead of here in America, employing Americans.Why produce something for more money and less efficiently when it can be done better and cheaper elsewhere? This however are drastically improving though, not sure if we (Americans) could produce all of these things with taxes, restrictions, trade barriers etc.

 

[macintoshi]

unrespectfull

Hard for me, even as an Apple fan, to weep too much for a company that chooses to do business overseas isntead of here in America, employing Americans.

Hopefully the situation in Japan improves -- for reasons beyond this.

What does that mean, that we europeans have no right to get it at almost same time cause of disgracedfull people like you?

You got the iPad before us, first of all!
Second is, we have right, also to get it!
Third, Apple now is international!!!

So please stop pushing us more down as you are, cause your ass stinks same as all others!

All have right, to get an iPad everywere and at the same Time!

Wanted just to say this.

 

[SchneiderMan]

Who cares? There are greater things to worry about than iPods at the moment..

 

[NinjaHERO]

The good news is that it sounds like the plant wasn't damaged. While I am sure making batteries for Apple is not on the top of their priority list, their economy starting back up will help speed their recovery. A little bit of good news I hope.

 

[hotrock3]

Well, the percentage of suicides is a lot smaller in Foxconn employees than in the US population.

wired had an article about this a couple months back. The suicide rate at the Foxconn plant is lower than the suicide rate in the rest of the Chinese population (possibly lower even than in the US, I can't remember the article exactly).

by mass rates you mean lower than the national average?

I'm glad that there are people out there who did the research to find out if it was really that bad compared to other places like I did.

I hope you know that cell phones emit radiation.

Although you are factually correct since a cell phone does emit non-ionizing radiation in the form of electromagnetic radiation, I think the original poster was implying that they had a distaste for ionizing radiation which is hazardous and does cause cancer in large enough doses.

 

[bassfingers]

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I agree. Given the last Ford we purchased leaked and after 6 months of trying to fix it, the Ford dealer said "well, everything leaks" and said they'd give a good deal on it to trade it in if we wanted. And the last GM we had stalled every morning when you were pulling out on to the road and the dealer said that it was "just the way the car was made," and could never fix it I wouldn't buy an American made car unless they started getting good reports both for quality upfront (they just sound cheap compared to a Honda, Mercedes, Lexus, Porsche, or Toyota) and for quality over 5-6+ years of ownership. And the previous American made cars we had were of similar low quality.

So for the last 11 years, I've been buying non-American. It is too bad, but the quality is not there. I even looked at one with a friend in November and it was the same deal.

An iPhone made in the US would be double the price due to high taxes and regulation. Quality, who knows, but the cost would be prohibitive compared to everyone else. It would be the fastest way for Apple to kill itself. If Apple *could* do it, they would, but it is impossible.

It is competition - if you can't compete on quality or price, you are out of luck. Unless you can get a handout.

Quality would probably go down.

People keep quoting "taxes and regulation". Sure those would expensive, but how about the unions! That's why it'd be expensive. We'd have to pay someone $30 an hour to assemble iPods. I'm sorry, but if literally anyone in the world can do the exact same job as you with little to no training, you get minimum wage

 

[bassfingers]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

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

Geez thousands of people displaced, and you're still using your own computer? Oh wait, do you or do you not want the world to stop turning?

 

[Fukui]

Globalization is a race to the bottom, and nobody seems to understand that while the 3rd world rises up, the 1st world inevitably must slide down.

The data would say otherwise...

 

[ladeer]

I agree. Given the last Ford we purchased leaked and after 6 months of trying to fix it, the Ford dealer said "well, everything leaks" and said they'd give a good deal on it to trade it in if we wanted. And the last GM we had stalled every morning when you were pulling out on to the road and the dealer said that it was "just the way the car was made," and could never fix it I wouldn't buy an American made car unless they started getting good reports both for quality upfront (they just sound cheap compared to a Honda, Mercedes, Lexus, Porsche, or Toyota) and for quality over 5-6+ years of ownership. And the previous American made cars we had were of similar low quality.

So for the last 11 years, I've been buying non-American. It is too bad, but the quality is not there. I even looked at one with a friend in November and it was the same deal.

An iPhone made in the US would be double the price due to high taxes and regulation. Quality, who knows, but the cost would be prohibitive compared to everyone else. It would be the fastest way for Apple to kill itself. If Apple *could* do it, they would, but it is impossible.

It is competition - if you can't compete on quality or price, you are out of luck. Unless you can get a handout.

quality has nothing to do w/ the location of manufacturing. toyota and bmw both make many of their cars in US, but they have high quality because they make them that way.

it's not about where it's made, or which country the company comes from. Apple is an American company but understands design and quality, just like many other american companies that care about quality such as boeing.

 

[nubero]

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

exactly.

 

[Stelph]

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.

Here in the UK a couple of months ago there was quite a good program on this, where a group of Brits who were unemployed and were very vocally against immigrants "coming over here and taking our jobs" were given the chance to work alongside them in the same job to see how they would do.

Turned out the vast majority of the Brits were very lazy and undermotivated, the work was sub-par and they gave the impression that they just felt that as they had been born in the UK they were entitled to a job rather than entitled to it because they worked hard. That being said, there were two guys who I had a lot of respect for as at the start of the program they were the same as the others, but then picked up an "anything that they can do, I can do better" mentality and totally committed themselves to the job, as it turned out they did very well and by the end they were offered jobs as they showed they were good workers

 

[Blacklabel34]

So the factory is fine but the loading dock is damaged? And they had to shut down the factory because they can't figure out another way to bring in the supplies?

Sounds like we are not getting the whole story...

 

[482214]

This must be the number 1 concern on all of Japans minds right now... How will everyone survive without an ipod.

Wait... How did we ever survive without it!

I'M FREAKING OUT ! ! !

 

[Northgrove]

Too bad to hear, but I also have to think about the victims in Japan when hearing these kind of news, or unemployed workers due to the extensive damages. Those who want to build those batteries for us, but can't, and have to look after their family members instead. A situation an order of a magnitude worse than this...

 

[Michael383]

This must be the number 1 concern on all of Japans minds right now... How will everyone survive without an ipod.

!

With all the devastation in Japan I think I could wait for an Ipod battery.

 

[pkson]

Are you serious? who cares about ipods & battery shortages when there is a crysis =/..

You've been playing too much Crysis.

I agree with you though. iPod batteries should not get as much attention when there is a crisis.

 

[LarryC]

These jokes just aren't funny.

It's too early for this. Maybe it will never not be too early for this, but please have some sensitivity for people who have friends/family/are themselves in affected areas.




Do you have any evidence for this?

He is right about this. I used to work for a Japanese company here in N.C.. He must have some experience in dealing with them or knows someone who has experience dealing with them.

 

[LarryC]

The data would say otherwise...

Number 41 is correct. Anyone who doubts that globalization is a lowering of American standard of living is a damned fool. The people who say otherwise do so because it hasn't hit them yet, but it will eventually. Some of you sound like you live in your parents basement and others sound like yuppie pricks. Just wait, it will happen to you, too!

 

[pkson]

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.

Putting something in your thoughts doesn't do anything either.

Unless you (not YOU, but people in general) hop on a plane and go over there to help, or at least donate to organizations who do, the most people can do is just be (or act) sad and concerned. Even being sad or concerned doesn't do anything for Japan.

 

[LarryC]

Then there is the business plan / conspiracy theory that this was caused above the Sichuan epicenter by the Chinese reverse engineering of the American HAARP.

Oh good Lord, now harp players are being blamed for this.

 

[GulGnu]

Secondly, the term "3rd world" and "1st world" is offensive.

Why? It´s just a reference to the battleground / spectator status of the decolonized countries during the cold war. (The "second world" being the now-defunct Soviet Bloc.)


From the almighty Wikipedia:

"French demographer, anthropologist and historian Alfred Sauvy, in an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur, August 14, 1952, coined the term Third World, referring to countries that were unaligned with either the Communist Soviet bloc or the Capitalist NATO bloc during the Cold War. His usage was a reference to the Third Estate, the commoners of France who, before and during the French Revolution, opposed priests and nobles, who composed the First Estate and Second Estate, respectively. "

 

[482214]

Why? It´s just a reference to the battleground / spectator status of the decolonized countries during the cold war. (The "second world" being the now-defunct Soviet Bloc.)


From the almighty Wikipedia:

"French demographer, anthropologist and historian Alfred Sauvy, in an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur, August 14, 1952, coined the term Third World, referring to countries that were unaligned with either the Communist Soviet bloc or the Capitalist NATO bloc during the Cold War. His usage was a reference to the Third Estate, the commoners of France who, before and during the French Revolution, opposed priests and nobles, who composed the First Estate and Second Estate, respectively. "

Anyone who needs to quote wikipedia shouldn't be allowed to contribute!

Now thats a FACT!

 

[camelsnot]

who cares, it's just an ipod. Those pieces of junk should be canned by Apple anyways.

 

[fxtech]

Who cares? There are greater things to worry about than iPods at the moment..

Yeah like where the heck is my iPad 2? According to the latest email manifest, at 2:03 am it was somewhere over the pacific. This isn't near enough information. I'm thinking of chartering a jet so I can fly out and track it's progress myself. Anyone else want in?

 

[482214]

Yeah like where the heck is my iPad 2? According to the latest email manifest, at 2:03 am it was somewhere over the pacific. This isn't near enough information. I'm thinking of chartering a jet so I can fly out and track it's progress myself. Anyone else want in?

WOW... what a perfect specimen you are not