Manufacturing FYI
Jan 29, 2012 11:11:45 GMT
Post by CharlieChomper on Jan 29, 2012 11:11:45 GMT
What I'm about to post is something that has hardly been a secret in the industry for many years now (in fact, it's fairly common knowledge within certain facets of it--it's one of the "dirty little secrets" that has existed and sadly remains commonplace, albeit not as bad as this nor as widespread)--however, it's only really been now that more information about it is becoming more widely written about publicly and in the mainstream press.
While this article doesn't come out and mention this, I'd like to clarify that some of the companies mentioned in it (Nokia, Motorola, and Dell) don't use them as a primary manufacturing source (or in some cases, only use them to manufacture certain devices or components--it's actually a fairly common practice in the industry where a company may have or use multiple sources or suppliers for their products).
In HP/Hewlett-Packard's case, it's more of a proverbial mixed bag as while they do use Foxconn (the company brought up in the article) for some things, they also outsource production to other manufacturers as well, making it sometimes hard to know who made what or where a given item sometimes came from.
In the case of Apple, however, Foxconn has been their main supplier and producer for many, many years now (there remains two ongoing debates amongst Apple fans as to whether or not it was Steve Jobs who chose to go with them or Apple's current CEO, Tim Cook--in the latter debate, there's a subcategory as to whether or not Jobs knew of what was going on or not (with some going so far as to be apologists for him). However, given the atmosphere at Apple, it would have been impossible for Steve Jobs not to have known about it--to provide some insight, there wasn't an ounce of that company he didn't insist upon micromanaging (this included the periods when he was officially on leave from the company). That was also amongst the reasons why anytime he took ill or there was speculation into his health, there were also concerns raised as to the future of the company or why the company's stocks were affected by it (this was even more so the case when he passed away as there was considerable speculation into what the future of the company might look like without him and whether or not it would survive or not--especially in light of what happened after he left the company the first time).
One of exceptions to Foxconn serving as Apple's suppliers has been actually in the processors used in the iPads (the iPads use a special processor by Samsung--whom Apple is suing (over Samsung having entered the tablet market--although, the lawsuit is actually of all things based upon Apple's claim that because Samsung's tablet has rounded edges, supposedly it infringes upon Apple's copyright over the use of rounded edges on tablets (that's the only grounds upon which this lawsuit is based upon, yet has turned into one very big, ugly war between the two companies in the courts to where it's sometimes affected one company attempting to get court orders to block sales of the other's products in specific regions (Apple initially attempted to do this with Samsung in Australia and block sales of their products there due to the copyright infringement claim on the grounds that supposedly consumers would somehow get confused by the use of rounded corners and somehow mistake it for an iPad--they made a similar claim with Samsung's Android phones with respect to the iPhone. Initially, they succeeded in getting an Australian judge to sign off on banning the sale of Samsung's products in Australia, but Samsung was able to win on appeal. Since then, Apple has attempted to use similar tactics elsewhere across the globe against Samsung to keep their products from being sold (as Samsung also happens to currently rank as Apple's biggest competitor). Not that Samsung has come away with entirely clean hands, as it were. In a few places, they had attempted the same thing with Apple, albeit more on the grounds that there was an ongoing lawsuit between the two companies. However, so far no judge nor government has been agreeable to it. Despite this, however, the company Apple initially attempted to go with to do the processor for the iPad2 doesn't have the production/manufacturing capacity to handle it and it would take them years and huge amounts of money to even get to that point. So, Apple had to go back to Samsung to create the processor for the iPad2 and manufacture it in spite of the fact that both companies are currently at war, as it were).
Regardless, my main reason for posting this is to provide some idea into what has been going on "behind closed doors" as it were in the manufacturing aspect of the business, in hopes that more people become aware of it.
Also, I don't mean to single out Apple as the lone offender in using them as other companies do contract out work to them as well--however, they are the only company in the industry who uses them almost exclusively in manufacturing all their products (given how close a relationship the two companies have and how much manufacturing Foxconn actually does for Apple combined with just their being amongst the company's largest clients, Foxconn recently had attempted to get Apple to sign an agreement with them for Foxconn to be their exclusive manufacturer of all their products. Apple refused to sign that agreement, however, as certain components (such as processors and some chipsets) they rely upon other suppliers for).
Incidentally, with some Foxconn-made goods, the items may be labeled as coming from them--but in other cases (such as goods contracted out by other companies), it's sometimes not so obvious to know it was them or if it was by someone else (such as in the case of Apple).
While this article doesn't come out and mention this, I'd like to clarify that some of the companies mentioned in it (Nokia, Motorola, and Dell) don't use them as a primary manufacturing source (or in some cases, only use them to manufacture certain devices or components--it's actually a fairly common practice in the industry where a company may have or use multiple sources or suppliers for their products).
In HP/Hewlett-Packard's case, it's more of a proverbial mixed bag as while they do use Foxconn (the company brought up in the article) for some things, they also outsource production to other manufacturers as well, making it sometimes hard to know who made what or where a given item sometimes came from.
In the case of Apple, however, Foxconn has been their main supplier and producer for many, many years now (there remains two ongoing debates amongst Apple fans as to whether or not it was Steve Jobs who chose to go with them or Apple's current CEO, Tim Cook--in the latter debate, there's a subcategory as to whether or not Jobs knew of what was going on or not (with some going so far as to be apologists for him). However, given the atmosphere at Apple, it would have been impossible for Steve Jobs not to have known about it--to provide some insight, there wasn't an ounce of that company he didn't insist upon micromanaging (this included the periods when he was officially on leave from the company). That was also amongst the reasons why anytime he took ill or there was speculation into his health, there were also concerns raised as to the future of the company or why the company's stocks were affected by it (this was even more so the case when he passed away as there was considerable speculation into what the future of the company might look like without him and whether or not it would survive or not--especially in light of what happened after he left the company the first time).
One of exceptions to Foxconn serving as Apple's suppliers has been actually in the processors used in the iPads (the iPads use a special processor by Samsung--whom Apple is suing (over Samsung having entered the tablet market--although, the lawsuit is actually of all things based upon Apple's claim that because Samsung's tablet has rounded edges, supposedly it infringes upon Apple's copyright over the use of rounded edges on tablets (that's the only grounds upon which this lawsuit is based upon, yet has turned into one very big, ugly war between the two companies in the courts to where it's sometimes affected one company attempting to get court orders to block sales of the other's products in specific regions (Apple initially attempted to do this with Samsung in Australia and block sales of their products there due to the copyright infringement claim on the grounds that supposedly consumers would somehow get confused by the use of rounded corners and somehow mistake it for an iPad--they made a similar claim with Samsung's Android phones with respect to the iPhone. Initially, they succeeded in getting an Australian judge to sign off on banning the sale of Samsung's products in Australia, but Samsung was able to win on appeal. Since then, Apple has attempted to use similar tactics elsewhere across the globe against Samsung to keep their products from being sold (as Samsung also happens to currently rank as Apple's biggest competitor). Not that Samsung has come away with entirely clean hands, as it were. In a few places, they had attempted the same thing with Apple, albeit more on the grounds that there was an ongoing lawsuit between the two companies. However, so far no judge nor government has been agreeable to it. Despite this, however, the company Apple initially attempted to go with to do the processor for the iPad2 doesn't have the production/manufacturing capacity to handle it and it would take them years and huge amounts of money to even get to that point. So, Apple had to go back to Samsung to create the processor for the iPad2 and manufacture it in spite of the fact that both companies are currently at war, as it were).
Regardless, my main reason for posting this is to provide some idea into what has been going on "behind closed doors" as it were in the manufacturing aspect of the business, in hopes that more people become aware of it.
Also, I don't mean to single out Apple as the lone offender in using them as other companies do contract out work to them as well--however, they are the only company in the industry who uses them almost exclusively in manufacturing all their products (given how close a relationship the two companies have and how much manufacturing Foxconn actually does for Apple combined with just their being amongst the company's largest clients, Foxconn recently had attempted to get Apple to sign an agreement with them for Foxconn to be their exclusive manufacturer of all their products. Apple refused to sign that agreement, however, as certain components (such as processors and some chipsets) they rely upon other suppliers for).
Incidentally, with some Foxconn-made goods, the items may be labeled as coming from them--but in other cases (such as goods contracted out by other companies), it's sometimes not so obvious to know it was them or if it was by someone else (such as in the case of Apple).
