Apple Asks Suppliers To Shift AirPods, Beats Production To India (nikkei.com) 55
Apple is asking suppliers to move some AirPods and Beats headphone production to India for the first time, in a win for the South Asia nation as it attempts to rise in the global supply chain. Nikkei Asia Review reports: The move is part of Apple's gradual diversification from China, as it looks to lower the risk of supply chain disruptions stemming from the country's strict zero-COVID policy and tensions with the U.S. Apple has been talking with a number of its suppliers about increasing production in India, including of key acoustics devices, as early as next year, three people familiar with the matter told Nikkei Asia. In response, iPhone assembler Foxconn is preparing to make Beats headphones in the country, and hopes to eventually produce AirPods there as well, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Luxshare Precision Industry and its affiliates, which already produce AirPods in Vietnam and China, also plan to help Apple make the popular wireless earphones in India, sources said. However, Luxshare is focusing more on its Vietnamese AirPods operations for now and could be slower than its competitors in starting meaningful production of Apple products in India, one of the people said. Bringing AirPods and Beats production to India would enlarge Apple's production footprint in the country, following a recent announcement that the latest iPhone is already being made there. Apple started having some older iPhone models made in India in 2017 by a smaller supplier, Wistron, but only accelerated such production last year.
Luxshare Precision Industry and its affiliates, which already produce AirPods in Vietnam and China, also plan to help Apple make the popular wireless earphones in India, sources said. However, Luxshare is focusing more on its Vietnamese AirPods operations for now and could be slower than its competitors in starting meaningful production of Apple products in India, one of the people said. Bringing AirPods and Beats production to India would enlarge Apple's production footprint in the country, following a recent announcement that the latest iPhone is already being made there. Apple started having some older iPhone models made in India in 2017 by a smaller supplier, Wistron, but only accelerated such production last year.
Hittin' Different (Score:4, Funny)
"Hey Sri, order me some Beats by Shivansh."
Translation (Score:4)
Apple needs more servile wage slaves.
Re: (Score:2)
How else can they pass the savings on to their customers.
Pass the profits onto their shareholders you mean?
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How else can they pass the savings on to their customers.
Pass the profits onto their shareholders you mean?
And improve their environmental footprint my moving production even farther away for US customers.
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What the hell alternative universe do you come from where Apple pass on savings to the customers?
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Apple sees the writing on the wall. China is going to side with the authoritarians. The dream of openness through prosperity has failed. A new iron curtain is rising. Supply chains are routing around future incisions.
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Apple needs more servile wage slaves.
You can STFU until even ONE of Apple's actual competitors moves their Contract Manufacturing to the United States.
It'll all even out ... (Score:2)
They'll move help-desk support from India to China ... "Cindy" will just have a slightly different accent. :-)
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They'll move help-desk support from India to China ... "Cindy" will just have a slightly different accent. :-)
Apple's Tech Support, at least for the U.S., has always been based in the U.S.
Apple (Score:3)
Made by the lowest bidder
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The design is terrible anyway. They are glued and plastic welded together, completely impossible to repair. Not just the ear buds which at least have the excuse of having to be very compact, but the charging case too. Both contain batteries with a finite lifespan.
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you mean like 99.7% of all electronic devices ever produced? you apple haters are so funny.
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Not as funny as the guy who's obviously never worked on electronics trying to tell us they're all glue sandwiches. I'll also assume he's a teenager due to the smartphone fixation, seemingly unaware of the existence of desktop computers, radios, televisions, laptops, game consoles, etc., and unaware that these are all electronics.
On second thought, it's not so funny. It's just sad.
Re:Apple (Score:4, Funny)
you mean like 99.7% of all electronic devices ever produced?
That is obviously disingenuous. The vast majority of devices with lithium batteries in them can be taken apart without breaking them.
you apple haters are so funny.
I got to be one by being an apple user.
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you mean like 99.7% of all electronic devices ever produced?
That is obviously disingenuous. The vast majority of devices with lithium batteries in them can be taken apart without breaking them.
you apple haters are so funny.
I got to be one by being an apple user.
I think you were predisposed.
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For comparison, Samsung's wireless ear buds can be disassembled and the battery replaced with common tools and in a way that doesn't destroy them. The case too.
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Designed in California
Made by the lowest bidder
As opposed to HP, Dell, etc, which are. . . ?
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we have always made apples in india (Score:2)
diversification from China
oh come on. We all know it's in preparation for the coming war.
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War with China?
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The proxy war with Russia has been profitable for the Democrats and their allies.
That's a typically dumb thing for you to say. Support for the MIC is bipartisan, they're not Democratic allies. They're authoritarian allies.
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You got that right. Oddly we had peace under Trump
We did not have peace under Trump. For example we were still in Afghanistan. He brokered a very bad deal to leave, and then left it for someone else to accomplish. We would have been at more peace under Biden since he accomplished the withdrawal (poorly, but he didn't have much chance to make it go well either) but then Trump's handler Putin invaded a neighbor they've invaded before under a completely bullshit pretext that a bunch of incredibly stupid Republicans have chosen to believe.
I grew up at a time w
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He didn't declare North Korea our powerful ally at the DMZ like AA hire - Word Salad Harris
That was an idiotic flub, but Trump in fact couldn't stop talking about how much he loved despots including Lil' Kim. Harris did it accidentally, which was stupid. Trump did it intentionally, which was evil.
Trump brokered a Middle East peace deal that if Obama pulled off, would have had the media on their knees fighting over who got to suck his cock. He started no new wars.
Neither did Biden. Your hero Putin did.
He didn't start WWIII like all you idiots kept predicting, but Biden is close to it with Putin threatening nuclear weapons in Ukraine and his lackeys demanding US and UK nuclear strikes.
So to be clear, Putin is threatening to use nukes, and Putin's lackeys are demanding that he use nukes, but somehow this is Biden's fault? You really do love Putin, don't you?
As for that bad Afghan deal, Brandon managed to reverse every other policy and order by Trump, but amazingly that was the one that he just couldn't figure out how to change.
Yeah see, when you make a deal with a foreign nation then it's legally binding. But when Tr
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I recall 10 years ago when Fox News was telling us Obama was on a dangerous path to dictatorship by issuing way too many executive orders.
But when Trump issued more EOs in 1 term than Obama did in 2, there was dead silence on the issue.
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If Putin is emboldened enough to threaten nuclear was against the US, who do you want to blame for that weakness? Is that Trump's fault somehow?
It's not Trump's fault, it's Putin's fault. Putin was getting what he wanted out of Trump, so he let it play out. Now he has created these foolish ideas in minds like yours about the situation by waiting to invade until Biden was in office. This has been a terrible strategy for him however, because Biden was completely willing to stand up to him.
It might be you who doesn't understand.
I understand very well that you complain about EOs only when it's not your favorite president making record numbers of them.
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It's not Trump's fault, it's Putin's fault. Putin was getting what he wanted out of Trump, so he let it play out.
Which was? Four years of the media braying "Russian collusion" with no evidence? Trump warning Europe about Russian energy dependence? Asking Ukraine to investigate the Bidens for the Burisma improprieties?
Now he has created these foolish ideas in minds like yours about the situation by waiting to invade until Biden was in office. This has been a terrible strategy for him however, because Biden was completely willing to stand up to him.
Putin is literally shaking in his boots over Biden's backbone. SMH. Biden can't even stand up to Saudi Arabia when he goes hat in hand begging for more oil.
I understand very well that you complain about EOs only when it's not your favorite president making record numbers of them.
No I complain about an incompetent (nearly) octogenarian who can barely read a teleprompter and calls out for dead people to join him on stage. This is a guy that built an Hollywood style White House office set to mask his bad public performances. Every measure of economy, inflation, immigration, crime and security is worse since he took office. Even Democrats want him to call it quits in 2024. I find it odd that anyone not on his payroll would still have support for him.
Login and fight like an adult, or STFU, Ivan.
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You got that right. Oddly we had peace under Trump
We did not have peace under Trump. For example we were still in Afghanistan. He brokered a very bad deal to leave, and then left it for someone else to accomplish. We would have been at more peace under Biden since he accomplished the withdrawal (poorly, but he didn't have much chance to make it go well either) but then Trump's handler Putin invaded a neighbor they've invaded before under a completely bullshit pretext that a bunch of incredibly stupid Republicans have chosen to believe.
I grew up at a time when Republicans were saying "better dead than red" and talking about "those communist Russians", most of whom were not in fact Russian and almost none of whom were in fact communists. Now you guys are saying "Better Russian than Democrat" and making excuses for a vile murderer because it's what you were told to think was right. Putin's forces raped their way across big piece of Ukraine and you guys cheered because no price is too high to pay for political victory.
I agree with every word you just Posted.
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The proxy war with Russia has been profitable for the Democrats and their allies. A proxy war with China would be much more profitable. You guys are being suckered into supporting wars by people who are picking your pockets. One of the oldest tricks but you guys fall for it every time. Go back to dreaming about socialism, drunkypoo. It is right around the corner.
You are simply pathetic, and pathetically simple.
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China is expensive and always on holiday (Score:1)
India is cheaper than China these days, and China is starting to have to grapple with its environmental crisis.
India doesn't give two fucks about environment, worker safety, and they have far fewer holidays where people are off work. Plus they are buying Russian oil on the cheap so production costs are a lot less.
Also Xi's zero covid obsessions (Score:2)
.. is crippling local and regional economies in his country. There seems to be an unwritten rule that power starts corrupting after a decade or 2 with a drift away from reality at the same time.
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Power is usually taken by assholes, and assholes create yes men, so they start getting bad information — and then they can't make effective decisions.
India vs. China (Score:1)
> in a win for the South Asia nation as it attempts to rise in the global supply chain
It only really needs to hold on, keep their collective heads down and wait. China's gradually imploding under its own weight, issues such as excessive lockdowns, re-education camps, forced labour and even social scores could see China drop off the worlds favourite trading partners list in just a few years.
India isn't without it's problems for the West, but it's way, way cleaner than China ever was. It's also a lot less
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India does substantially the same things as China, or nearly so and catching up fast. They don't have a free press, government corruption from top to bottom, and the border disputes regarding Kashmir raise the specter of war in a way analogous to Taiwan. India doesn't have formal concentration camps for the Muslims yet, but the religious persecution is going full steam ahead, so it won't be long.
They certainly have a better image than China does at this point in time. I think that's the best thing you can s
This sort of thing will change region geopolitics (Score:2)
If India can pull in as much money from western corporations as china has in the last 2 decades they'll become a superpower fast. Arguably they almost are already since they have nukes but their conventional forces are hopeless. I suspect under someone like Modi they won't stay that way for long once the cash firehose starts flowing. Whether thats a good of bad thing is anyones guess , though I imagine for Pakistan it won't be great news.
Bad Idea (Score:2)
India has too many uppity people who are riled up easily and protest. Vietnam, or Southeast Asian countries, are a better choice.
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If any corporation gets what it wants, the natural end result is protests, because they always want to fuck over everyone they see.
Anywhere But United States (Score:2)
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What would be the harm of making even one thing in the United States?
You think there's an "Apple Tax" now. . .
BTW, Apple did do that with at least one or two generations of Mac Pros.
BRICS (Score:2)
Should have diversified outside of the BRICS alliance. If the global breakdown continues to get worse between NATO and BRICS then apple still effectively has all their eggs in one basket.
Plus it is probably CHEAPER (Score:1)
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They thought they found their crown jewel because the "workers" (slave labor) can't really demand more in wages because the CCP will just off them, and replace them with someone else. But, not with the political fallout, the corporations looked for a place and they found India.
Weird, you were doing so well there and then you pretended reality didn't apply to China. Corporations aren't moving production from China for political reasons, though they would like us to believe that. They're doing it because labor costs have gone up in China because their population expects it. The great firewall keeps them insulated from a lot of information, but one thing it doesn't hide from them is western lifestyles, and essentially everyone wants those (or at least, the idealized Hollywood view o
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They thought they found their crown jewel because the "workers" (slave labor) can't really demand more in wages because the CCP will just off them, and replace them with someone else. But, not with the political fallout, the corporations looked for a place and they found India.
Weird, you were doing so well there and then you pretended reality didn't apply to China. Corporations aren't moving production from China for political reasons, though they would like us to believe that. They're doing it because labor costs have gone up in China because their population expects it. The great firewall keeps them insulated from a lot of information, but one thing it doesn't hide from them is western lifestyles, and essentially everyone wants those (or at least, the idealized Hollywood view of them delivered in the media they consume.)
I think it is actually a bit of both.
IMHO, China's policies and demands are truly tiresome and fundamentally offensive to U.S. Corporations; but rising labor costs are a real thing, too.