Apple Starts Assembling iPhones In India (techcrunch.com) 56
Apple has successfully completed its first trial run assembly of the iPhone SE in India, reports The Wall Street Journal. "We are beginning initial production of a small number of iPhone SE in Bengaluru," Apple said in a statement to TechCrunch. "iPhone SE is the most popular and powerful phone with a four-inch display in the world and we'll begin shipping to domestic customers this month." From the report: The four-inch SE is Apple's least expensive model, running $399 in the States. Some retailers in the country have managed to undercut the cost, lower the entry level price of the handset by around $80 -- but even at that price, it's still substantially more expensive than most. In spite of its relatively low pricing, the SE doesn't appear to have made quite the splash Apple was initially anticipating in the country. Apple has long been working to move production to the country, hoping, in part, to retake some of the market it has lost in China in recent years, as domestic handset sales have grown. Locals are hoping that such a move could reduce the retail cost of the SE even further, by as much as $100. But while $220 is certainly a lot more palatable, that still marks a substantial premium over the average handset price. It's the world's fastest growing market, having recently surpassed the U.S. to claim the number. The Indian market is expected to generate somewhere in the neighborhood of one billion smartphone sales over the next half-decade.
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Re: After dealing with manufacturing in India... (Score:2)
Apple doesn't have an "anti american" attitude. It's just capitalism , and the choice is either affordable China/India phones or beyond ridiculous priced local one. Anyway , decades of nafta has stripped US tech manufacturing to the point America *cant* make iPhones. The factory capacity simply doesn't exist
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Apple doesn't have an "anti american" attitude. It's just capitalism , and the choice is either affordable China/India phones or beyond ridiculous priced local one.
Nah, the choice is either monstrous profits from making in china/india or less but still considerable profits from building in america. It's not hard to figure out why they build shit there.
Re: After dealing with manufacturing in India... (Score:1)
apple in seach of hype consumers (Score:1)
as markets mature and competitors' lower priced products with similar or better features gain currency, apple needs to find markets where there are still consumers who get fooled by hype to buy overpriced mediocre products.
or abandon the hype and absurd overpricing, and just try to satisfy customers at lowest prices that are still profitable, as others do. but that would make fanbois cry.
Re:apple in seach of hype consumers (Score:4, Informative)
As a Nexus, followed by Samsung and now Apple user, I have to say, you're a moron if you believe that dribble.
Android is very flexible, get one if you want to tweak and customize stuff.
Apple phones are consistent, fluid and reliable, get one if you want it to just work.
Each to their own.
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Amen to that. I've been given a 4S (needs a new battery), one of their best designs, Wish it was never upgraded beyond IOS6, I miss that interface, now it's all flat, feels like either Win3.11 or Win8. It currently runs on IOS 9.x (a little slow, but still runs)
Re: apple in seach of hype consumers (Score:1)
Re: apple in seach of hype consumers (Score:2)
My personal experience is that Android is more likely to stutter and freeze momentarily (even after updates and factory resets, they start off smooth then after a few days/weeks, seem to slow). I've found iOS to behave smooth like butter compared to smooth like margarine with a couple pinches of sand.
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Apple phones are consistent, fluid and reliable, get one if you want it to just work.
It just works, except when it doesn't.
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Exactly. Android is much more powerful in many ways, while iOS seems restrictive beyond reason. But it does work well, incredibly well (which I would not say for Android - it just works, kind of).
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The irony is that I've found I've spent a lot of my time in Android trying to find stuff like texting apps which emulate iOS's :-)
Some of the good things about the restriction, is that it forces app developers in to having to do it Apple's way, so restrictive, but makes things seamless/consistent.
However the restriction is annoying, when I can't make Chrome and Google Maps the defaults, or have to manually trigger the lastpass extension to fill in logins.
How Apple can win (Score:2)
awww that's cute (Score:1)
You expect them to lower price as their cost decreases?
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Race to the bottom (Score:1)
The race of global businesses to cut costs by exporting labor is just going to result in everyone living in a third world country.
Re:Race to the bottom (Score:5, Insightful)
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Actually globalism and this offshoring of labor has lead to drastic increases in the middle class for both China and India.
Yes it has and it's also resulted in suppressed wages in the US and thus moving the middle class in the US closer to poverty. My point is that if we keep going on at this pace that it will make us all equally poor.
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Yes it has and it's also resulted in suppressed wages in the US and thus moving the middle class in the US closer to poverty.
Manufacturing job losses in America have been driven more by automation than by outsourcing. Lower wages are offset by lower prices for products made by machines or Asians. So the cost to Americans has been far, far less than the gains in Asia. Living standards in China have gone up eight-fold over the last 30 years.
My point is that if we keep going on at this pace that it will make us all equally poor.
My point is that this is nonsense. Improvements in productivity do not lead to poverty.
Pacing (Score:2)
Yes it has and it's also resulted in suppressed wages in the US and thus moving the middle class in the US closer to poverty. My point is that if we keep going on at this pace that it will make us all equally poor.
It's been going "at this pace" for decades, centuries in some markets. You're assuming a zero sum game, if they have something then we can't have it, too. The truth is that the more people are involved in a market, the more wealth is created.
Also, nothing is stopping you from "buying American." You can buy made in the US shoes from Alden for $300, made in the US shirts from Brooks Brothers for $100, made in the US khakis from Bills for $100, made in the US jeans from Earnest Sewn for $200.
If you don't like
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You're assuming a zero sum game, if they have something then we can't have it, too.
Parts of it a zero sum but obviously not all of it.
The truth is that the more people are involved in a market, the more wealth is created.
Ahh, the foolish armchair economist and his ideas about "wealth" that don't align with reality. Nice to meet you once more.
Also, nothing is stopping you from "buying American." You can buy made in the US shoes from Alden for $300, made in the US shirts from Brooks Brothers for $100, made in the US khakis from Bills for $100, made in the US jeans from Earnest Sewn for $200.
If you don't like paying that much, then you can't complain that much about globalism.
That's the dumbest thing I've read on this subject. Congratulations on taking the title of fool.
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Also, nothing is stopping you from "buying American." You can buy made in the US shoes from Alden for $300, made in the US shirts from Brooks Brothers for $100, made in the US khakis from Bills for $100, made in the US jeans from Earnest Sewn for $200.
If you don't like paying that much, then you can't complain that much about globalism.
That's the dumbest thing I've read on this subject. Congratulations on taking the title of fool.
It's not dumb at all. Quite a few people here on /. argue that they would be happy to pay more for products, so companies should only hire Americans for everything. "Your local dairy farm shouldn't hire temporary farm workers from Mexico, because Americans would be willing to do that work if they paid a market wage." Well, here's your chance. Go ahead and pay 5-10 times the cost for a pair of blue jeans. Put your money where your mouth is.
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Actually globalism and this offshoring of labor has lead to drastic increases in the middle class for both China and India.
Yes it has and it's also resulted in suppressed wages in the US and thus moving the middle class in the US closer to poverty. My point is that if we keep going on at this pace that it will make us all equally poor.
How so? It's not like "line worker in manufacturing" ever was a middle class job description.
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Typo (Score:1)
GM passing on India (Score:1)