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China Iphone

iPhone Maker Plans $700 Million India Plant In Shift From China (bloomberg.com) 26

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Apple partner Foxconn Technology Group plans to invest about $700 million on a new plant in India to ramp up local production, people familiar with the matter said, underscoring an accelerating shift of manufacturing away from China as Washington-Beijing tensions grow. The Taiwanese company, also known for its flagship unit Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., plans to build the plant to make iPhone parts on a 300-acre site close to the airport in Bengaluru, the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka [...]. The factory may also assemble Apple's handsets [...], and Foxconn may also use the site to produce some parts for its nascent electric vehicle business.

The investment is one of Foxconn's biggest single outlays to date in India and underscores how China's at risk of losing its status as the world's largest producer of consumer electronics. Apple and other US brands are leaning on their Chinese-based suppliers to explore alternative locations such as India and Vietnam. It's a rethink of the global supply chain that's accelerated during the pandemic and the war in Ukraine and could reshape the way global electronics are made. The new production site in India is expected to create about 100,000 jobs, the people said. The company's sprawling iPhone assembly complex in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou employs some 200,000 at the moment, although that number surges during peak production season.

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iPhone Maker Plans $700 Million India Plant In Shift From China

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  • by Gabest ( 852807 ) on Friday March 03, 2023 @09:15AM (#63338517)

    Apple is all about pay the extra to get a quality product, but their manufacturing goes to the lowest bidder.

    • China used to be the lowest bidder. Now Apple and other manufacturers have seen first hand what happens when China decides they want to close down one or more of your critical suppliers. China is a loose cannon.

      If the machinery and inputs are the same, why would the quality in India be any different from that in China?

      • If the machinery and inputs are the same, why would the quality in India be any different from that in China?

        Worker attitudes.

        I'll offer this as "citation:" It's from Akio Morita's book on the founding of Sony "Made in Japan."

        In the stone age, even before I was born, Sony was making their Trinitrons in Japan and sending them here to sell. Well, the US put up a protectionist tariff on TVs, so Sony opened a plant in San Fransisco (I think it was San Fran) to make them in the US.

        The TVs made there were ABYSMAL. Failures left and right. Sony replaced / repaired, and sent what they could back to Japan for forensics

        • A few specific examples do not a generalization make. Besides, quality is a matter of process control as much as of "worker attitudes". Apple has that down pat, as shown by their products that are currently made in China, not Japan.
    • It really comes down to legal and contracting. Products made in the USA, China, India, or some obscure little place in the middle of nowhere has the same chance of meeting a particular quality level.
      Building in the USA makes legal and contracting often a bit easier for a US based company. Because culturally and legally everyone is on the same page. Working cross countries, that means we need to make sure every detail of the process is documented and understood.

      For the US if you say Start Work on time, we

    • Apple wants to sell iThings in India. (To the "Next Billion" customers....)

      India requires manufacturing in India for products sold in India.

      Apple is moving (some) production to India.

      If quality control issues can be managed (India is known for QC issues), Apple may expand manufacturing in India further. They are expanding manufacturing into Vietnam as well, and are more likely to use Vietnam production for global supply.

    • Don't forget that India never has to worry about human rights violations accusations because India uses Dalit labor and India doesn't consider Dalits human.
  • What a great "American" company Apple is.
    • If the iphone were made in the US, it'd cost at least twice as much. Possibly 4x as much. I'm basing that on a few made-in-usa essentials I have.. they all cost between half to four times as much as the equivalent Chinese-made garbage. I'm talking hammers, screwdrivers, hoses, hose nozzles, etc.

      You can thank Nixon and Clinton or that. Yes, the mistakes made were made half a century, and 30 years ago. Now it's too late to fix, we just have to Eat It.

      I would love to have an iphone made entirely here, fro

      • by zlives ( 2009072 )

        "If the iphone were made in the US, it'd cost at least twice as much. Possibly 4x as much." could possibly be true if apple were to maintain their astronomical profits and business decisions/regulations continue as they are for perpetuating the status quo.

      • News flash - the iPhone already costs twice as much.

        Moving manufacturing to the US and keeping the same prices would move some of their ridiculous margin out of the top and into US manufacturing jobs. That's what the real problem is.

        Or do you think Apple is a struggling company barely managing to turn a profit?

      • If the iphone were made in the US, it'd cost at least twice as much. Possibly 4x as much. I'm basing that on a few made-in-usa essentials I have.. they all cost between half to four times as much as the equivalent Chinese-made garbage. I'm talking hammers, screwdrivers, hoses, hose nozzles, etc.

        You can thank Nixon and Clinton or that. Yes, the mistakes made were made half a century, and 30 years ago. Now it's too late to fix, we just have to Eat It.

        I would love to have an iphone made entirely here, from case to glass to everything inside.

        Won't happen. And you know it, which makes your post borderline troll. You're trolling for a reaction. Well, you hooked me. Happy now?

        Nixon opened the door, and then 30 years later, under Clinton, China was let into WTO and granted "Most Preferred" status.

        Both were horrific mistakes, which eventually completely gutted USA production. I can't even find usa-made pencils or towels anymore without resorting to hugely expensive "boutique" brands.. so I don't. I make do with my old Cannon usa-made towels.. which are on their last legs.

        Your blaming it on Apple is nothing but a troll. Blame the politicians and their policies. Half a century of dumbassery is finally closing in on the USA.

        This.

        Mods: Mod Parent +Informative

  • by couchslug ( 175151 ) on Friday March 03, 2023 @09:45AM (#63338589)

    Detente was useless because Russia and China didn't reform their territorial designs or become freer societies. It was a naive act borne of childish ignorance. Fortunately Russian greed and social incompetence born of silly desire to experiment did useful economic damage, but China was far more competent.

    To trade with a country is to arm that country, the acts are inseparable. Everything is of a piece. When an enemy state profits that directly generates military funding or frees money normally spent elsewhere for arms.

    The only people not considering Beijing a threat are ChiCom shills. Trade with India should be expanded to reward the worlds largest democracy and wean it from Russia whose demonstrated failures make it a less desirable military partner.

    Pakistani support for the Taliban ensured US failure in Afghanistan. If Pakistan lacked nukes it could be left to itself but there is no leverage against the Pakistani frenemy without India. India is enormous and Hindu nationalists "intrinsically reliable" against the Jihadist threat. If not for the early Cold War the West could have aligned with India before Pakistan got nukes then sidelined it into irrelevance. That didn't happen so the only way to restrain Islamabad is to engage India whom it threatens.

    India is a natural ally of democracy. India needs trade to modernize and weapons to survive because it's surrounded by enemies. Indian manufacturing can turn out decent work (vehicle parts, Enfield motorbikes etc) and has potential for more if cultural barriers to quality common through the region are overcome.

    • by chthon ( 580889 )

      I do not think that it was born out of childish ignorance.

      Why would we not start with improving relationships at the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s, and hope that through mutual business, the people of all these blocks got a better life?

      But nobody could predict that people like Putin and Xi would become heads of state (and XI is there only since 2012) (I won't call them leaders, they don't deserve that moniker), who don't give care about the real people.

      But, there should always have been a s

    • by Anonymous Coward

      The problem is it's not clear India is any more of an ally. In fact, despite minor small scale border clashes they've politically aligned themselves with China and Russia to a significant extent; and the worlds largest democracy is a bit misleading and has only gotten worse since articles like this were written:

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/wor... [bbc.co.uk]

      The fact is India consistently funds and buys from Russian arms programmes, they consistently side against the West with Russia and China at the UN, and they're one o

    • To trade with a country is to arm that country, the acts are inseparable. Everything is of a piece. When an enemy state profits that directly generates military funding or frees money normally spent elsewhere for arms.

      That's by definition a bilateral phenomenon - countries that trade with each other, arm each other. The only question is one of balance - and part of that balance comes down to how countries make use of the 'arms' which trade gives them. Arguably, China used trade with the US to enhance its technological and military capabilities, while the US used it to stuff corporate coffers and stock dollar-store shelves with throwaway crap.

      Trade with India should be expanded to reward the worlds largest democracy and wean it from Russia whose demonstrated failures make it a less desirable military partner.

      In this case, trade with "India" is still funneling money to Foxconn, and theref

    • . Indian manufacturing can turn out decent work (vehicle parts, Enfield motorbikes etc)

      HAHAHAHAHAH what a laugh!

      I looked Royal Enfield all over a few years ago, when I was thinking about getting back into two wheels. NO. Hell no. Uneven paint, pitted, rough castings.. you can tell the assembly was done by the most unskilled workers from the rounded-off corners on the bolts.. and these were factory-new, not beaters.

      Try again when they can build something like a Honda.

    • Answer honestly. What has China, and the Chinese people done to us, in order for us to consider them the enemy? Is it the type of government they have? Is it because they eat rice, and we eat mostly mashed potatoes? Why do we consider them the enemy, while the rest of America (Latin America) sees them as a friend? Why do we have to be in a fucking war with everyone?
  • by kackle ( 910159 ) on Friday March 03, 2023 @11:30AM (#63338925)
    What, no more room in Wisconsin?
  • by Anonymous Coward

    There goes Apple's quality. The after-market will be flooded with replacement parts that were manufacturing rejects, and manufacturing will be mostly rejects. You'll be able to buy real Apple parts on the grey market that do not work right, while trying to repair your phone that does not work right.

    This is the beginning of the end for Apple devices.

    • Give india some time, they are capable. Remember that Japanese made stuff used to be bad, then it became top quality. Chinese, and Taiwanese stuff used to be horrible, now it mostly depends on how much you are willing to pay for it (mostly good stuff, unless it is being made for a dollar store, or Walmart).
  • by groobly ( 6155920 ) on Friday March 03, 2023 @01:25PM (#63339239)

    Haha. Apple leaves China, where government is the criminal but workers are super good, to country where government is corrupt, but companies are criminals. Good luck Apple.

Air pollution is really making us pay through the nose.

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