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If there are shortages, it should be just a short term problem. Japan is an incredibly resourceful country and can bounce back from incredible setbacks.
 
Actually...

I dunno, while I think it is insensitive, its realistic: There's a lot of lost productivity and a lot of people will pay for things that happened in Japan in terms of their income. Not just Apple.

I think the insensitive ones though are the ones who read this and think of someone like William Dudley saying that iPads matter really to the end consumer as much as food. Not really that much. But when you're dealing with a country that just experienced such a natural disaster, piling on lost opportunity income doesn't help.

I mean, let's say you were a factory worker who just lost his house. Then you found out you lost your job for a few months because repairs are being done on a component plant. Its true you're luckier than thousands of others, but at the same time, that's even more hardship than losing your house alone. And in Japan, good luck getting another job in the short term. The main problem here lays in the fact that the insurance adjusters are not going to complete their work for months.

So this "Shortage" means, for lack of sensitivity, that people are not able to work. And that's a massive problem that you have to be sensitive to.
 
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My heart goes out to those in Japan, but that doesn't mean everyone's lives should stop. It doesn't mean we shouldn't want an iPad 2, or a new car, or whatever.

There has always been world hunger and other issues, but that didn't keep us from buying our iPods, macbooks, etc before.

This is just news, don't read too much into it.
 
What Japan is going thru right now is horrific! I can't even imagine being in their shoes especially in the affected areas. Even a possible meltdown happening at this very minute. So if I have to wait for an Apple device longer it doesn't matter the people of Japan need help. They are going thru the wost natural disaster in history & the worst nuclear incident in the world. My heart goes out to Japan. Devices can wait lives cannot.

Dear MacRumors Friends,

I am a Tokyo resident and went through the worst earthquake I have ever experienced here in the 20 years of being in Japan. Of course, my experience is nothing like that of the people of Tohoku. Immediately after the earthquake, communications were almost only possible via the internet. FaceTime actually was used by myself and my partner to communicate for real for the very first time. Today, there haven't been any aftershocks, but we remain jittery - especially due to the Fukushima situation.

Many have voiced their concern for the taste of this article and there have been opinions both for and against. Although I am not a representative of the Japanese people or in any position of the kind, as someone that has gone through this, I took no offence to the article in the first instance and consider it to be legitimate economic news. Secondly, I am encouraged and highly appreciative of the strong display of concern and sensitivity shown.

By all means, discuss these things. We can't avoid reality and life must go on.

Your sincerely,
One, insignificant individual in Tokyo.
 
iPads are made in China for the cheap labor.

Your post came across as confusing/misleading. This is a thread about the parts sourced & produced in Japan.

In addition, if the parts were made in the US, the iPad would double or triple in price to cover the immensely high costs to not only relocate, but have to pay double the amount of staff a higher wage to get the job done. Finally, Apple don't produce the iPads, they pay other companies to mass produce them.
 
There is nothing insensitive or callous about either the story, or being interested in how the earthquake may disrupt iPad production.

I think like most people, I'm horrified by the devastation and loss of life that has occurred in Japan. I've done what little I can (a small donation through the iTunes site - prompted, in no small part, by the story here at MR.)

But in the meantime life has to go on. We would not be doing the people in Japan any favors by, for example, boycotting viewing the NCAA basketball tournament (How can you be so uncaring as to watch basketball at a time like this...)

In the meantime, its worth recognizing that Japan will need economic activity to generate the wages, profits, and taxes that are going to pay for the country's reconstruction. The sooner Japanese businesses can get back in business, the sooner life itself will return to normal. And if part of that involves Apple working closely with its Japanese suppliers, employees, and partners to help THEM get back on their feet - then I consider that a WIN-WIN all around.
 
Your post came across as confusing/misleading. This is a thread about the parts sourced & produced in Japan.

In addition, if the parts were made in the US, the iPad would double or triple in price to cover the immensely high costs to not only relocate, but have to pay double the amount of staff a higher wage to get the job done. Finally, Apple don't produce the iPads, they pay other companies to mass produce them.

But could they not use (not Made) parts from a U.S. company? Doesn't Micron, Intel, Kingston or ti make flash memory? Also Gorilla glass from Corning. Used and especially made in Japan or Korea by Japanese companies and Korean companies are not cheap either. If Not U.S. manufactures, get the lowest prices, use Chinese companies.
 
They need to pick and choose, what they post.... People who buy apple products know that their products come from asian and possible certain components come from japan and china maybe korea idk.... but macrumors doesn't need to exploit a situation about a SERIOUS WORLDWIDE ISSUE, yes the japan crisis is everyones crisis imho (Many nuclear plants in the usa are built like the ones that failed in japan) that should be a wake up call to be more prepared ... Macrumors, is trying to drive clicks off the back of the japanese people, by advertising some other sites article about japan crisis possible shorting "precious" apples supply. its that simple.... not even apple is doing this...at least apple is helping the efforts....macrumors isn't running a donate to japan on their site, they don't care about japan, just their clicks
Of course MacRumors cares about Japan. They're just posting Apple news, like they always do. They are in no way suggesting that this is more important or as important as the crisis in Japan, just because this happens to be related to it.
 
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No offense to the author, but this article is just poor taste.

Hardly in poor taste, the author is just stating a fact. Also, lack of exports will be one of Japan's major worries of the crisis, That's where a big part of it's economy comes from. Just because you're ridiculously over-sensitive and find this article in 'poor taste' I'm sure the people of Japan won't be greatly offended by it...
 
Having read both sides of the argument in the comments, I agree that there is no need for this article. While both sides make valid points, MacRumors is really generating clicks by posting second hand information. iSuppli can leave the article on their site since it's their report but linking to it and collecting money is unnecessary.

Maybe you can donate the $XXX you made from our collective clicks to:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsr...room/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-how-to-help

Then at least all sides are covered.
 
Dear MacRumors Friends,

I am a Tokyo resident and went through the worst earthquake I have ever experienced here in the 20 years of being in Japan. Of course, my experience is nothing like that of the people of Tohoku. Immediately after the earthquake, communications were almost only possible via the internet. FaceTime actually was used by myself and my partner to communicate for real for the very first time. Today, there haven't been any aftershocks, but we remain jittery - especially due to the Fukushima situation.

Many have voiced their concern for the taste of this article and there have been opinions both for and against. Although I am not a representative of the Japanese people or in any position of the kind, as someone that has gone through this, I took no offence to the article in the first instance and consider it to be legitimate economic news. Secondly, I am encouraged and highly appreciative of the strong display of concern and sensitivity shown.

By all means, discuss these things. We can't avoid reality and life must go on.

Your sincerely,
One, insignificant individual in Tokyo.

Glad to hear you are hanging in there and hope Japan recovers to be stronger than before.

Appreciate you weighing in as it is nice to know first hand comments. Although I thought the article was not totally necessary, often times media sites and TV networks will donate certain proceeds to relief efforts as they are aware that their increased revenue may be coming at the expense of others. We saw that in Haiti most recently.

In any event, glad to hear FaceTime has helped in your situation.
 
But the global economy is being affected

+1 More important things in life. I'll get my order when I get my order.

I agree that this talking about iPad 2 shortages because of Japan's tragedy is not really that important. it isn't.

The real importance though is due to this catastrophe, japan's economy (and therefore it'[s people) will suffer greatly. Most electronics components (and a great majority of auto parts) are produced in japan. And even if factories were not affected directly, basic services like electricity have been interrupted through the country.

It is important here because as these factories are unable to produce anything in the next few weeks, US factories will start shutting down as well. GM just announced that they are shutting down their Shreveport factory due to missing components from japan.

I agree that Ipad 2 shortages is not an important issue right now, but please see it as template of how interrelated we all are. And how one missing link in the supply line affects so many industries down the line.
 
I know this story wasn't posted to be insensitive, but is this really that important? They just suffered from the 5th-strongest recorded earthquake (at least since record-keeping began around 1900) and a giant tsunami. You can wait a little longer for your iPad.

I guess people are just curious though...

You think this may be ill timed? Then check out this piece in the New Zealand Herald not 6 days after the quake. 5th stongest earthquake in recorded history, well over 10,000 dead and likely to break 20,000, and not one but three nuclear reactors on the brink of meltdown, and someone is worried about the implications for used cars. WTF?:eek:
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)



This is not an article about 1 person wanting an iPad and complaining that they can't get it. This is a story about a multiple-billion dollar company with investors who want to know what's going to happen this year. This is important news for a lot of people.

There is nothing wrong or insensitive about this in any way.

I'm here in Tokyo, and I have employees in the tsunami and nuclear zones. And I totally agree with you — this is a legitimate business news story.

I also am very happy to see so many comments from people saying that they don't mind the potential delays in the shipments of their iPads, given the situation here in Japan.

Thank you.
 
I guess that over the next few weeks there will be shortages and delays to lots of products across many industries, but the Japanese have more important things to deal with for now.

Yeah, considering there's a food and water shortage, 400,000 homeless, 100,000 missing, 30,000 dead and 200 billion in damages a little wait for the iPad2 isn't a big deal.

I got an iPad for Christmas and returned it in anticipation of the iPad2. Glad I waited. I'd wait a lifetime if it would give one Japanese person a moment of peace.
 
If the iPad is going to experience supply constraints, you have to wonder what will happen to the various competitors to the iPad this year. I would think they would be similarly affected?

Maybe even more so. If Apple has a slow down in production due to lower component production, that means even less available for the bottom feeders.
 
If there are shortages, it should be just a short term problem. Japan is an incredibly resourceful country and can bounce back from incredible setbacks.

I don't know Japan was already on the decline before the earthquake/tsunami/meltdown. The Chinese and especially the Koreans were already chipping away at Japans auto and electronics industries. I'm sure they'll recover but they'll never be the economic power they once were.
 
please stop suggesting that I stop

You ask Macrumors to stop because they are "insensitive" and yet you should be allowed to continue displaying your insensitivity on this subject ?

The economic impacts of the Japan crisis will have repercussions the whole world over. Many automotive manufacturers are having to shut down plants and lay workers off in the US and Canada because of a lack of parts coming in from Japan.

Are these worker's plight as bad as the plight of the Japanese people that are currently homeless ? Probably not, but it does not mean that news about their troubles should be ignored.

Yet there you are, asking for it to be ignored. There's a real human crisis going on here and it stretches way beyond the borders of a single country. News items on this crisis should not be censored. There is nothing insensitive about covering all aspects of the crisis, including economic, humanitarian and scientific aspects. Next are you going to ask censoring articles about the seismic activities that lead to the earthquake ? Marine biology articles about the effects of the tsunami in the pacific ?

Seriously. The only insensitive people are the ones that have a narrow view of the crisis and want everyone else to have the same narrow view.
 
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